DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0200Z December 28, 2005

Florida:
A cluster of fires to the south and southeast of Lake Okeechobee were
responsible for an area of smoke which spread to the SSE during the
afternoon toward the more populated areas of southeastern Florida
including the Fort Lauderdale and Miami metro areas. Moderately
dense smoke was fanning out to the north and east of a fire located
in the Apalachicola National Forest in Liberty County of the Florida
panhandle. The smoke was heading in the general direction of Tallahassee,
but had not made it that far to the NE as of sunset.

Oklahoma/Texas:
A large number of fires fanned by gusty westerly and southwesterly winds
and fueled by dry grass and vegetation were detected this afternoon across
a wide area extending from central Texas to northeastern Oklahoma. Some
of these destructive fires were noted to be quite large in size and
were producing locally dense smoke plumes which were being blown rapidly
eastward and northeastward. Particularly intense fires with pronounced
smoke plumes were observed with fires across Seminole, Garvin, Johnston,
Bryan, and Choctaw counties of south central and southern Oklahoma as
well as Cooke, Callahan, Eastland, Coleman, and Somervell counties of
northern and central Texas. Large hot spots were still detected in GOES
Channel 2 imagery well after sunset with the fires over Seminole, Atoka,
and Choctaw counties of Oklahoma.

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.