DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0300Z MAY 9, 2006.
Florida: Several large fires continue to burn across Florida. The most significant fires were observed over Volusia, Brevard, Palm Beach, and Broward Counties. The moderately dense to locally dense smoke from these fires had combined to form a large mass which spread eastward across the east coast of Florida and offshore over the Atlantic. Cuba/Florida: A few significant fires especially over the western portion of Cuba were emitting locally dense smoke plumes which moved northward across a portion of the Florida Keys. Gulf of Mexico/Gulf Coast States: Visible imagery this evening showed an extremely large areal coverage of smoke which covered parts of Central America and eastern Mexico and extended northward over nearly the entire Gulf of Mexico. The huge batch of smoke also was believed to have transported northward and northeastward into southern and eastern Texas, the southern half of Louisiana, southern Mississippi, southern Alabama, and even close to the Florida Panhandle and the western part of the Florida peninsula. Some haze was also present just to the northwest of this area across the region from southwestern Texas to southern Oklahoma which could also possibly contain some remnant smoke as well. Arizona: A fire in the Kaibab National Forest and close to or in the Grand Canyon National Park of western Coconino County of northern Arizona was emitting a long rather narrow moderately dense smoke plume which had moved eastward to near the Arizona-New Mexico border by sunset. A narrow band of thin to moderately dense smoke spread northeastward across southeastern Arizona from a fire located just south of the Arizona-Mexican border in the Sierra de San Antonio range. JS