SE Smoke

[Justin E. Reed]

The fires in SE GA and NE FL have caused many weeks of choking smoke to cover our normally blue skies. The smoke is not contained to small areas, this tuff is spreading hundreds of miles, and in extreme cases when upper level support allows, thousands of miles. Yesterday, much of GA was smothered in thick smoke, with visibilities at KATL(Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta Int'l) to be reduced at one METAR of 1 mile, with average of about 3-5 miles throughout the day. The atmosphere is creating an inversion, trapping the smoke below 7,000 ft and causing serious air quality issues. Both Birmingham and Atlanta were Code Orange yesterday, and Nashville is today. The smoke has traveled as far north right now as Paducah and Owensboro,KY and as far west as Memphis,TN. This inversion is absolutely enormous, spreading smoke over 800 miles away.

1355Z observations
KBHM/Birmingham Int'l 2SM FU HZ Clear
KATL/Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson 10SM Clear
KBNA/Nashville Int'l 7SM Clear
KMEM/Memphis Int'l 10SM BKN250
KMGM/Montgomery Regional-Dannelly Field 1 1/2SM FU Clear
KMXF/Maxwell AFB,AL 2SM FU FEW000
KTLH/Tallahassee Regional 8SM FU SCT030
KPAH/Paducah Municipal 5SM HZ Clear
MKDH/ Carbondale-Murphysboro-Southern Illinois 8SM Clear

 

[Jack Carlson]

Every so often the Twin Cites and surrounding area will all of a sudden have a pretty noticeable haze... Inevitably we will hear or read some story about a large forest fire in Canada which is the culprit...

 

[Justin E. Reed]

Yeah you all have the massive fire up in the Arrowhead, N of Duluth going on. You all need some rain too. The rate were heading, average highs this summer 100-105 in the South and worst drought on record!

 

[Blake Michaleski]

Last week or so the smoke was really think in Pensacola/GulfBreeze, FL at the opposite end of the state. It's definitely making its way around.

 

[Justin Bailey]

i know they're expectin 1-3 mile visibilities in Srn and Wrn TN today. so far there has been no smoke to speak of here south of nashville. i expect it'll work this way. we need rain bad! all of Srn middle TN is now under D3(extreme) drought conditions. we haven't had a drop of rain in 13 days. forcasters have now added a 10% chance for thundershowers on monday, which could cause more harm than good. with such small areas gettin rainfall it will not be any help alleviate the druoght any. and the lightning could cause several fires. as of right now thats our only chane of rain for the next 10 days! i though May was supposed to be wet!?! makes you wonder what july and august are going to be like!

 

[Justin Turcotte]

I have the luxary of drawing forecast grids for the GA 511 system. The smoke has been about the only feature of interest to draw for several weeks. It's neat to watch the visible sat and see how the smoke inhibits heating enough to delay cumulus development.