DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1530Z May 7, 2008

Florida:
Relatively thin smoke was visible this morning moving to the west and
fanning out well off the west coast of southern Florida over the Gulf of
Mexico due to the ongoing fire burning to the west of Lake Okeechobee
in the extreme southeastern portion of Glades County near the border
of Hendry County.  Before moving out over the Gulf, the smoke was
approximately located between Sarasota and Naples with the thickest part
of the plume moving across the Fort Myers area.

Western Gulf of Mexico:
Morning visible imagery showed an area of mainly thin smoke extending
northward across the Bay of Campeche to the western Gulf of Mexico off
the southern coast of Texas.  This smoke, which is due to the ongoing
seasonal fires burning in Mexico and Central America, appeared to be
moving to the north.

Southwestern to South Central Canada/Eastern Montana/Dakotas/Minnesota:
A break in the cloudiness over the area stretching from southeastern
Alberta Province to southern Manitoba Province in Canada as well as
eastern Montana across the Dakotas to Minnesota revealed an area of haze
which may contain remnant smoke from a significant number of primarily
agricultural fires detected in the region.  Other unknown aerosol sources
may also be contributing to this haze including very long lived remnant
smoke from the large Russian fires of more than a week ago.

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.