DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0200Z May 6, 2008
Updated...to include paragraph at the bottom concerning smoke over the western Gulf of Mexico and southern Texas. Florida: A large fire continues to burn on the west shore of lake Okeechobee in southeast Glades county producing light to moderately dense smoke which extends to the east-southeast across the southern portion of the lake, extreme northeast Hendry county and western Palm Beach county into the Atlantic. A fire in Nassau county in northern Florida generated light smoke which extended 200km off shore into the Atlantic. Along the east coast of FL in S. Volusia county there is a fire emitting light to moderately dense smoke which is moving east offshore. Another fire in N. Highlands county emanated light to moderately dense smoke which was seen extending a few miles east before weather clouds obscured observations. Arkansas: About 40 miles west of Little Rock, in northern Saline county, a fire is producing light to moderately dense smoke which is moving north. From visible imagery earlier this morning... South Central Canada/Northern Plains/Northern Great Lakes: A remnant area of light smoke, likely from the numerous agricultural fires in the northern Plains and southern prairie provinces of Canada on Sunday, was seen earlier this morning across the northern Great Lakes extending from western Lake Superior across the upper peninsula of Michigan, the northern portion of lower Michigan and Lake Huron. During the afternoon, more fires were detected across the same general region of North Dakota, western Minnesota, and Manitoba/Saskatchewan provinces of south central Canada but patchy cloudiness across the region prevented much in the way of smoke detection. Western Gulf of Mexico/Southern Texas: A swath of thin smoke was barely visible stretching from the Bay of Campeche northward across extreme eastern Mexico and the western Gulf of Mexico to southern Texas. Due to cloudiness over portions of this region, it was difficult to determine the exact extent of the smoke especially inland over Texas. Ruminski/Salemi