Sunday, May 13, 2007

DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0200Z May 14, 2007

Mexico/Central America/Gulf of Mexico:
The smoke from the extremely large number of seasonal fires burning
across southern and eastern Mexico and Central America continues to be
suppressed to the south and east. The thickest concentrations of smoke
stretch from the southern portion of the Yucatan Peninsula and Guatemala
eastward over Belize and Honduras.

Southern and Southeastern US/Gulf of Mexico/Bahamas:
Smoke continues to pour out of the extremely large intense fires burning
across far southern Georgia and extreme northern Florida. Mainly thin
smoke with possible embedded patches of moderately dense smoke covered
much of the central and northern Gulf of Mexico. Thin smoke likely mixed
with other pollutants also appeared to be inland over Louisiana, the
eastern half of Texas, a portion of the Central and Southern Plains and
at least over the southern half of the Gulf Coast states from Mississippi
to the Florida Panhandle. Over southern Georgia, much of Florida, and
areas east of Florida including the northern Bahamas, the smoke became
at least moderately dense with patches of dense smoke embedded within
this region. The thickest smoke was spread across the southern portions
of Georgia to the west of the fires and into northern Florida including
Tallahassee. More fires over southern Florida in Collier County were
producing at least moderately dense to perhaps locally dense smoke plumes
which moved to the east and to the south adding to the smoke already in
the region.

Southern Canada/Upper Midwest/Great Lakes Region/Northeast/Middle
Atlantic:
The earlier possible very thin smoke which was moving from Canada into the
Northeastern US appeared along and off the Northeast and Middle Atlantic
coastal regions late in the early evening just prior to sunset as it
continued to move to the southeast. Closer to the fires in northeastern
Minnesota (near the US-Canadian border in the Boundary Waters region
of Cook County) and also in southwestern Ontario Province in Canada,
southerly winds were pushing the dense smoke plumes in a northerly
direction during the day. Clouds moved over the fires during the
afternoon, limiting satellite detection of the smoke plumes. Elsewhere,
in the early afternoon, new fires in Canada had popped up around 25
miles to the northwest of Lake Superior and also around 50 miles to
the northeast of Sault Ste. Marie Michigan. The fire northeast of Sault
Ste. Marie was emitting a very dense large mass of smoke which was moving
mainly in an easterly direction.

California:
Satellite imagery detected a fire this afternoon in south central Los
Angeles County resulting in a moderately dense smoke plume which moved
to the northeast.

Oregon:
A moderately dense to locally dense smoke plume was observed moving to
the southeast from a fire in the Malheur National Forest in southeastern
Grant County in east central Oregon.

Western US:
GOES-East visible imagery along with the low sun angle just prior to
sunset showed a large region of haze over much of California extending to
the north and east over Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and western
Montana. The very large area of haze was at an unknown level in the
atmosphere and its composition was also unknown.

JS

 


Unless otherwise indicated:
  • Areas of smoke are analyzed using GOES-EAST and GOES-WEST Visible satellite imagery.
  • Only a general description of areas of smoke or significant smoke plumes will be analyzed.
  • A quantitative assessment of the density/amount of particulate or the vertical distribution is not included.
  • Widespread cloudiness may prevent the detection of smoke even from significant fires.