DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0030Z JANUARY 24, 2009
South Central US: Rather widespread cloudiness covered the south central US during the day which significantly limited fire and smoke detection in satellite imagery. Southeastern US: Somewhat less clouds were present over the Southeast which resulted in a large number of fire detections again today. Most of the smoke plumes visible in satellite imagery were in the region including central and eastern Georgia as well as southern south Carolina. These smoke plumes were primarily of thin density and were moving to the northeast. Farther to the south, several smoke producing fires partially obscured by clouds were scattered across the Florida peninsula and particularly across central and southern Florida. The most significant smoke plume came from a fire in or near the Everglades, just southeast of Miami. This fire produced a moderately dense to dense smoke plume which fanned out to the north and south as it spread in a westward direction. In southern Mississippi another significant plume of moderate to thick density moved off to the northeast and into southwestern Alabama from a fire in southern Perry County. Middle Atlantic and Southeastern Coastal Region: A swath of thin smoke which is most likely leftover from the larger fires burning in the south central and southeastern US during the past couple of days was visible during the morning and early afternoon moving eastward across the extreme eastern Carolinas and out over the Atlantic. JS