DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 0115Z May 14, 2008
Smoke: North Carolina: A fire in northern Hoke county produced thin to moderate smoke that slowly moved due south in a 15km wide plume and extended 60km to US-74 near Pembroke, NC South Carolina: A fire near Jamestown in northern Berkeley county is producing dense smoke that is moving south over Isle of Palms and Sullivan's Island...and extends an additional 80km off shore. The width is on average about 17km. South and Central Florida: A new fire in far SE Marion county near SR-19 produced a line of thin smoke that extended due east out to the Gulf Coast near Chassahowitzka, FL in a 34km wide plume. Remnant thin smoke from yesterday's burning at the Osage fire in southern Bevard county was first detected in a 50km by 100km area extending between Miami, FL and the Bimini Islands in the NW Providence Channel of the Bahamas. This area moved south to south-southwest along the SE coast of FL to cover Key Largo to halfway between FL and Andros Island...but thinned out quite a bit. Today's smoke began to fan but was more dense along a S and SSE moving lines. Moderate to dense smoke along the SSE line extended out to the Bimini Islands and was about 25km wide, while the S line was thin to moderate in density and extended to the Grassy Island fire on the western side of Lake Okeechobee. (all this smoke melded with smoke from other fires to be described below: A new fire near Cocoa, FL began to produce moderately dense smoke that was moving in many directions due the passing of the sea breeze...starting west then shifting toward the SW and SSW and covered much of southern Bevard and eastern Osceola county and began to meld with the Osage smoke in the late evening. The Grassy Island fire in eastern Glades county continued to build west and so smoke erupted further west toward Citrus Center, and so smoke started as thin but become moderately dense as the day progressed and so with north winds...smoke moved S but in a very wide swath covering nearly all of Hendry and Collier counties and extending into the Gulf just offshore of Chokoloskee, FL. A new fire rapidly flared this evening near or on the Brighton Seminole Resv. With moderately dense smoke drifting in nearly all directions under very weak winds...so expansion lead to merging with the Osage and Grassy Island fires' smoke by late evening...covering nearly all of N Glades county. Florida Panhandle: Remnant smoke from the Mud Swamp New River fire in southern Liberty county, was seen in a large arc (or “c” shape that extended due west from the fire to about the FL/AL state line but well out into the Gulf, where it curved back toward the SE to around 27.5N85W. This was all thin...but along the arc was moving anywhere from W to NW to stationary. This area become indistinguishable by late evening...except for the stationary area that was at the SE tip of the “c”. Clouds have also moved in from the west obscuring the western portions (or curved portion of the arc). Winds were extremely light near the fire by midafternoon so, smoke grew vertically and became more dense and slowly expanded outward in all directions covering all of central Liberty county and melding with smoke from the next fire. The next fire developed along the coast of Franklin county and rapidly produced moderate to dense smoke that mostly moved due S and SW into the Gulf in a 37km wide plume that extended over 80km. California: A fire near (just north) of Mt. Baldy Ski Resort along the Los Angeles/San Bernadino county line is producing a line of thin to moderate smoke that is moving due south across central Orange county into the Gulf of Santa Catalina and over San Clemente Island. The smoke was moderately dens e during midday but has begun to thin out...so the most dense area is currently over the Gulf. The plume is on average about 21km wide and extends a total of 225km so far. A fire along the southern spine of the Sierra Nevada Mtns (in the South Sierra Wilderness park) is producing a thin to moderately dense fan of smoke that extends SW about 20km into the valley and SE along the southern spine as far south as the Inyo/San Bernardino county line. Mexico/S New Mexico: A large fire just south of the AZ/NM state boundary in Mexico has been producing moderately dense smoke that extends into S NM in a 20km wide plume that covered extreme southern Hidalgo, all of Luna and portions of western Dona Ana counties. This smoke is mixing with sand/dust to be described below. SAND/DUST: Prevailing strong Swly flow rounding the base of a deep cut-off low over S AZ is kicking up dust and sand from the numerous deserts and salt flats of N Chihuahua and S NM, far W TX. This sand is covering all of SE NM as far north as Clovis/Portales, (including Lincoln, De Baca, Roosevelt, Chaves, Eddy. Otero, Dona Ana, Luna, and Hidalgo counties in NM and El Paso, far NW Hudspeth counties in TX. Clouds cover ares NW and SE of these counties and may or may not have a sand storm occurring. Gallina