DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1500Z May 15, 2007
Southeastern US/Southern US/Tennessee and Ohio Valley Regions/Gulf of Mexico: Moderately dense to dense smoke close to the source points of the active fires burning in southern Georgia and northern Florida initially appeared to be moving to the west-southwest very early this morning. However, by late morning winds had shifted and the smoke was being blown more in a west-northwest direction. This more concentrated region of smoke was located over northern Florida, southern and southwestern Georgia, and possibly southeastern Alabama. Farther away from the fires, residual light smoke could be seen on satellite imagery across the southern third of Florida extending westward to the central Gulf of Mexico. A thicker batch of at least moderately dense smoke was present within this region extending from the central Gulf of Mexico northward into southern Louisiana. Very early morning visible imagery with the favorable low sun angle also showed a hazy region stretching from the Gulf coast region of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama northward and northeastward across eastern Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, and possibly as far as the OH/WV/PA border region. This hazy area likely is composed of remnant thin smoke from the GA/FL fires along with other atmospheric pollutants. Farther to the west, some haze is also noted over the eastern half of Texas, southeastern Oklahoma, and central and western Arkansas. Because residual thin smoke was detected in this region the past several days, it is still possible that some leftover very thin smoke is still present here as well mixed with other pollutants. Arizona: Thin to moderately dense smoke was partly visible through high cloudiness extending to the east and southeast of a fire located close to the border of Gila and Coconino Counties in central Arizona. Western US and north Central US/Western and Central Canada/Alaska: Early morning visible imagery with the favorable low sun angle for viewing detection showed very large batches of haze present which has been occurring for the past several days. The source and composition of these unusually large areas of haze is unknown. It is possible that these particles suspended aloft have traveled extremely large distances over a number of days. One long narrow swath of this haze stretched from central California to northern New Mexico. More haze was detected in an enormous region covering the area from northern Nevada to western Nebraska then extending northward to northern states from Montana to northwestern Minnesota. The very large region of haze then extended to the northwest across south central Canada to western Canada. Additional haze was also noted in a swath across the north central portion of Alaska extending into the Yukon and the Northwest Territories. JS