DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0200Z May 13, 2007
Mexico/Central America/Gulf of Mexico: An incredible number of seasonal fires were detected across southern and eastern Mexico and Central America resulting in a very large mass of smoke covering the region and also extending northeastward into the western Caribbean and southeastern Gulf of Mexico where it links up with the southern portion of the smoke attributed to the very large Georgia/Florida fires. The smoke over the Caribbean and the southeastern Gulf of Mexico associated with the Mexican/Central American fires was mainly of the thin variety. Southern and Southeastern US: The extremely large intense fires burning across far southern Georgia and extreme northern Florida were still emitting massive quantities of smoke which interacted with the circulations around several weather systems. Some of the thin to moderately dense smoke has spread westward across the central to western Gulf of Mexico, with thin smoke likely making it inland over Louisiana and southern and eastern Texas. Another swath of thin smoke appeared to be nearly stationary over the area stretching from eastern Georgia across the far eastern portion of the Carolinas to off the Middle Atlantic coast. Much thicker patches of smoke covered portions of the central and southern Florida Peninsula as well as the eastern Gulf of Mexico and eastward through the northern Bahamas. This region of moderately dense to dense smoke was generally moving to the east and was wrapping around the old tropical circulation now well off the Florida coast. Closer to the fire very dense smoke was fanning out to the north and south as it generally moved to the west across northern Florida and southern and southwestern Georgia. Southern Canada/Upper Midwest/Great Lakes Region/Ohio Valley/Mid Mississippi Valley: An extremely large area of what is believed to be haze and very thin smoke covered the eastern portion of Manitoba Province, southern Ontario Province, and southern Quebec Province as well as portions of the Upper Mississippi Valley, the Great Lakes region, the Ohio Valley, and southwestward down into the middle Mississippi Valley and also possibly as far as eastern Oklahoma. This possible area of very thin smoke was believed to be associated with the very large fires burning in the Boundary Waters of northeastern Minnesota as well as in southwestern Ontario Province. The smoke has circulated around this general area for several days now, likely mixing with other pollutants. This afternoon, very dense smoke was detected closer to these fires with moderately dense to dense smoke covering an area from the fires eastward to the western portion of Lake Superior. Southwestern to central Canada: A region of haze from an unknown source and unknown composition was seen in visible imagery along an apparent frontal boundary from southwestern British Columbia Province to northern Saskatchewan Province. JS