DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0215Z May 22, 2008
Gulf of Mexico/Texas Gulf Coast/Florida: An area of haze extends from the Bay of Campeche and the Yucatan Peninsula northeastward across the south central Gulf of Mexico and the central and southern portion of the Florida peninsula to the Bahamas. It also extends back to the west-northwest over the western Gulf and is being drawn up along the entire Texas Gulf coast in advance of a strong storm system. This is believed to be mainly composed of smoke from the large number of seasonal fires continuing to burn across portions of southeastern Mexico and Central America. Additionally, a separate area of smoke from fires in central Cuba is drifting to the northeast just of the southeast coast of Florida and into the Bahamas. A plume of moderately dense smoke from the fires located on the western shore of Lake Okeechobee extended to the east across Martin and northern Palm Beach counties and just north of the Bahamas. A new blaze developed rapidly in northeast Lake county and generated a plume of moderate to dense smoke that extended about 275 km to the east by sunset, crossing Volusia county. Georgia/Alabama/Mississippi: A blaze in western Bryan county Georgia earlier in the afternoon produced a plume of light to mopderately dense smoke that extended to the east to about 225 km off the coast. A fire in eastern Escambia county Alabama has a plume of mainly light smoke that extended to the east along the southern tier of counties in Georgia reaching south central Georgia by sunset. A fire in southwest Wayne county Mississippi had a plume of light to moderately dense smoke that fanned out as it moved east into Clarke county Alabama. Southern Louisiana/East Texas: A pair of fires in southern Tyler county Texas and northwest Calcasieu parish in Louisiana had mainly light smoke plumes that moved north into Nacogdoches county and Pope parish respectively. Central Canada/Western Great Lakes states: Numerous agricultural fires were seen across northern Minnesota, North Dakota, southern Manitoba and southern Saskatchewan. A few were producing plumes of light to moderately dense smoke that were mainly drifting to the south and southwest. The most notable plumes were in northern Minnesota in eastern Kittson and western Roseau counties where there was even some locally dense smoke produced. A narrow but lengthy swath of likely smoke extended from the western portion of Hudson Bay southwest into eastern Manitoba and reaching just east of Lake Winnipeg. The source region of this possible smoke is not definitely known, but it may be from fires in Russia. California/Nevada/Arizona/New Mexico: A fire in southwest Hidalgo county New Mexico had a narrow plume of mainly thin smoke extending about 175 km to the northeast into northern Luna county. A fire in southern Graham county Arizona had a plume of thin smoke extend to the northeast into Greenlee county. A fire in south central Butte county in California had a narrow plume of thin smoke extend to the southeast into western Placer county. A potent storm system with strong winds is affecting much of the western third of the US. This is generating several areas of blowing dust, most notably in California, Nevada, New Mexico and northern Mexico. One area covered much of the central and southern valley of California from Merced county into northern Ventura and Los Angeles counties. Another dust plume was seen emanating from southern Esmeralda county in Nevada and extending across eastern Inyo and into San Bernardino county. Several areas of blowing dust were coming off the east coast of the northern half of the Baja penminsula and crossing the Gulf of California into northern Sonora state. Additionally, a couple of narrow dust plumes were seen in far northern Sonora and Chihuahua states and extended to the northeast where they merged with several other plumes originating in southern Arizona. This merged into a broad area of blowing dust that covered much of the southeast half of Arizona by sunset. Ruminski