SE Georgia Fire

[Justin E. Reed]

Sitting at work here today, the smoke plume has drifted back over the city. Visibility is sitting at between 1 1/2SM and 1/2SM, depending on your location. It wreaks of burnt pine and scrub palms, and were around 70 miles SE from this 20,000 acre fire. It started on Monday with a tree falling onto live lines in Ware County, just SW of the City of Waycross. It doubled it size in 2 hours yesterday and was picked up easily on the radar, with moderate returns. 13 homes have burned, and those are the ones found so far.

I have linked our city's newspaper, watch the picture ticker on the left side and click on the page. Excellent pictures of the plume over Waycross.

Florida Times-Union
http://www.jacksonville.com/

 

[Justin E. Reed]

The winds have changed to out S of the with an approaching low pressure system. The fire is now heading towards the south side of Waycross and a fight to save the city had insued. It has burned another home, and an additional 5,000 acres just today. Here at NAS JAX Towers Field(KNIP) we are 7 miles(unrestricted) visibility with sprinkles and virga. This won't help at all, and with winds getting up again on Friday, this fire could explode yet again. Tomorrow, the winds are supposed to switch to NE and we should get a good view of the smoke plume to the west. This is one of the bigger fires in this area in a while. I'll keep ya'll posted.

 

[Jason Persoff]

This has been awful for people suffering from allergies and asthma. We're getting bombarded with respiratory problems (I've been unlucky to suffer from those personally as well).

I shot a beautiful picture with my camera phone yesterday (not ideal, but it's what I had on me) that showed strato-smokus (I'm making that up) with gravity waves and a blood red setting sun. I'll try to upload that tonight.

It reminds me a bit of 1998 in terms of set-up. Very dry with strong winds.

 

[Justin E. Reed]

A back door cold front has pushed through the area. The fire has been given what people dreaded, more wind, gustin in the 20-30 range. It has now burned 42,000 acres, or about 52 square miles of forest. Yesterday, before frontal passage, the smoke made it all the way down to Orlando, 175 MILES AWAY! There is a possibilty that the winds could shift, and be as strong, and push it back towards Waycross, its a never ending battle. It is now within 1 mile of the Okefenokee Wildlife Refuge. In the meantime, another 1,000 acre fire has broken out SW of JAX, in Putnam County,FL, NW of the city of Palatka, it is 85% contained, but could break lose at anytime.

 

[J Kinkaid]

Pretty amazing for a NWS office to be reporting smoke for 30 hours in a row

 

[Justin E. Reed]

The fire continues to grow. This weekend, smoke was smelt and seen in Atlanta, some 250 miles from the fire, and even Chattanooga, over 300 miles from the fire! A total of 18 homes have burned, and the fire is now the largest fire in GA in over 50 years. An hour ago, a 200 acre brush fire developed by Cecil Field, on the Westside of Jacksonville. Clearly visible from my desk at work here in the NAS JAX weather office. 10 units are on the scene, as well as a fixed-wing aircraft, and 3 helicopters. The drought conditions here are on par with 1998's, and is on the track to be worse. This fire could just be the beginning, lets hope for a long wet summer.

 

[Alexandre Aguiar]

 

[Justin E. Reed]

Thank you very much for those 2 pics. The top one was the day I was working and we had 3/4mi visibility for 3 hours and everything wreaked of smoke.

 

[Alexandre Aguiar]

I am happy you liked it. The moment I read your message I remembered I saw pictures from this huge fire in the web. I got amazed by the extent of the fire and the details you offered. The good news is that NOAA is forecasting an improvement in the drought conditions. The region of the fire is under a severe drought, according to NOAA's Drought Monitor.It is far from the best solution, but, maybe, a tropical cyclone may bring some relief in the next months.

 

[Justin E. Reed]

Early Morning Update

An early morning update. The Westside JAX fire is semi-contained, though it has grown to 300 acres. It is located on Alcoy RD, just north of Normandy BLVD, and about 1 mile north of Cecil Field/Cecil Commerce Center. Two smoke decks developed around sunset, making for a tricky observation for me. The fire threatens no homes, and is not expected to get outta control. The Waycross/Ware County fire is officially the largest in GA history, scorching some 58 square miles of land and still growing. The Putnam County fire, just NW of Palatka is completely contained, just hosing down hot spots. It was started by an arsonists according to Putnam Sherrif's Office.

The forecast offers a tempting chance Thurs-Sat, but its a very slim chance, and it probably wouldnt do much good. It is possible the GA fire may head, for the 4th time, back towards Waycross starting today when the winds pick back up.

 

[Justin E. Reed]

This fire has now exploded yet again. Jumping several important fire lines and burning 4 more homes, and not only threatening Waycross for the 6th time, but the hamlet town of Manor(pronounced May-Nor). 61,000 acres and still growing. We got another 2-3 days of good windy conditions to take this fire to areas not yet burned. It is possible the smoke plume will move over JAX Metro this weekend. Keep yall posted

 

[Justin E. Reed]

This is starting to sound like a broken record, but this fire refuses to die. Yet again, the winds have shifted, putting the Jacksonville Metropolitan Area in the line of smoke. The upper part of the plume is currently becoming thicker and more dense. The visibility at NAS JAX Towers Field is currently unrestricted at 7 miles. A slight hint of smoke can be smelt outside right now and is going to get much much worse. This is the largest fire in GA history, scorching over a hundred square miles, and is now within 100 yards of US 1. If it jumps the highway, many homes are goin to be burned, plus much more valuable pine forest. The current KB Index readings are equal to that when the 1998 Firestorms scorched Volusia, Flagler, Seminole, Putnam, St. Johns, Orange, Lake, and Marion counties. The long range forecasts show little to no chance of significant rain within the next 2-3 weeks, plenty of time for firestorm conditions to develop. This is becoming dangerously critical, and much of Florida is on the verge of driest spring on record. The only part of Florida spared at this time is from the Apalachicola River and points west, including Panama City, Destin, and Pensacola, as well as the Florida Keys. I will keep you all posted on this worsening situation.

Waycross Journal-Herald
http://www.wjhnews.com/

 

[HAltschule]

SE GA wild fires have erupted tremendously since Saturday. There are now at least 3-4 different fires near the Waycross, GA area. This satellite image from around 13z Sunday shows the intense fires burning in the area with the heavy smoke plumes stretching southeast to near Cape Canaveral and then south into the Bahamas and also east about 2,000 miles into the Atlantic.

In addition, my friends home in Jacksonville has turned from white siding to brown siding b/c of the thick smoke. They are wearing masks when the plume moves overhead because it is so hard for them to breathe.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/weather/476716557/

 

[Terry Tyler]

%70 of the fire is contained...

http://www.comcast.net/news/index.jsp?cat=GENERAL&fn=/2007/04/29/649659.html&cvqh=itn_gaFire

 

[HAltschule]

Hmmm. I have learned to NEVER trust the media (esp. since I used to work for them). Their information is likely outdated. That said, I highly doubt that 70% of the fire is contained. There are currently at least 2 major wild fires burning in SE GA. The 2nd one erupted yesterday and looks quite intense. It was neat to track the smoke into the JAX area on the zoomed GOES Satellite loop today. I gave my friend a short term forecast as to when they heavy smoke would arrive. I told him it would arrive in less than 30 minutes and was right on. It was interesting to see the smoke plume move in on the WJXX streaming supercam too. Heavy smoke from both fires continue to envelope the Jacksonville, FL area this afternoon.

I found these KJAX observations quite interesting as well. Notice how the visibility from 9 Miles down to 2 1/2 Miles in Less than 1 hour. Visibility at times was only 1 Mile in thick smoke. Lots of breathing problems and dirty houses/cars for the people in JAX.

KJAX 291556Z 34009KT 9SM FEW250 27/08 A3011 RMK AO2 SLP197 T02720083=KJAX 291640Z 30008G17KT 2 1/2SM FU SCT250 27/09 A3010 RMK AO2 SFC VIS 5=KJAX 291656Z 27009G15KT 2 1/2SM FU SCT250 28/09 A3009 RMK AO2 SFC VIS 3 SLP190 T02830094=KJAX 291756Z 28008KT 2SM FU SCT010 27/09 A3008 RMK AO2 TWR VIS 2 1/2 SLP185 FU SCT010 T02670089 10283 20156 58015=KJAX 291812Z 29006KT 1SM FU SCT010 26/09 A3007 RMK AO2 SFC VIS 2 FU SCT010=KJAX 291820Z 29007KT 1SM FU OVC020 26/10 A3007 RMK AO2 SFC VIS 2 FU SCT010=KJAX 291856Z 30007KT 2SM FU BKN020 27/09 A3006 RMK AO2 SFC VIS 4 SLP180 FU BKN020 T02670089=