DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0015Z March 21, 2007
Alabama/Georgia/Florida/South Carolina: A very large number of fires with numerous smoke plumes were detected especially across northern Florida, much of central and southern Georgia, and scattered across South Carolina. Concentrated areas of fires over northern Florida as well as southwestern Georgia were responsible for a large mass of mainly thin but locally moderately dense smoke which drifted to the west and northwest during the afternoon. Elsewhere across the region, a fire in Chattahoochee County of west central Georgia was producing a moderately dense to locally dense smoke plume which moved in a northwest direction across the border into eastern Alabama. Erratic winds caused a significant moderately dense smoke plume from a fire in Putnam County in central Georgia to fan out to the north and south before moving to the northeast later in the afternoon. Just prior to sunset a burst of rather thick smoke moved to the southeast from a fire in Lincoln County of far east central Georgia. Across South Carolina, a number of fires in southwestern South Carolina as well as just across the border in eastern Georgia were responsible for a region of mainly thin smoke which covered a number of counties in southern and southwestern South Carolina. Thin to locally moderately dense smoke was spread across coastal central South Carolina during the afternoon which initially moved to the southeast and offshore but changing winds appeared to move the smoke northward just prior to sunset. The most significant plume in the region was being produced by a fire in Berkeley County. In northeastern South Carolina, moderately dense to locally dense smoke was spreading southeastward from a fire in Chesterfield County. Finally, fires primarily in Russell and Macon Counties of eastern Alabama were emitting moderately dense to locally dense smoke plumes which moved off to the northeast. Louisiana/Texas/Mississippi/Arkansas: Significant cloudiness was present across a good portion of this region which limited the ability to detect smoke. However, long northward moving smoke plumes were visible through the cloudiness from fires in Houston and Sabine Counties of eastern Texas as well as southwestern Yell County in west central Arkansas. The density of these plumes is not known due to the cloudiness. Eastern New Mexico/Western Texas/Western Oklahoma/Eastern Colorado: Just a few isolated thin smoke plumes were noted this afternoon across this area. Gusty southerly and southwesterly winds blew the plumes well downwind of the actual fires. The winds also appeared to kick up some blowing dust which moved from extreme east central New Mexico and west Texas (just northwest of Lubbock) in a northeasterly direction across the northwestern Texas panhandle (including Amarillo) toward the western Oklahoma panhandle. Washington: A swath of apparent blowing dust was noted in visible imagery just before sunset moving to the east from central to eastern Washington. One of the source regions of the blowing dust is approximately the area close to the border of Kittitas and Grant Counties. JS