Click on any of these images for a large view
This is a satellite view of the northern peninsula of Florida with highlighting
of the massive wildfire burning across Florida's northern counties.
We are located at the bottom center of this image.
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured the view of the County Line Fire and its smoke below on April 7, 2012.
The thick and potentially hazardous plume of smoke was blowing west when the image was taken at 3:45 p.m. local time (08:45 Universal Time). Another view of the smoke—captured by a MODIS instrument on the Terra satellite a day later (at top) —showed that winds had shifted and the plume had drifted both south and north.
On April 9th, the National Weather Service warned Floridians that smoke would likely move east and affect the Jacksonville area, with visibility reduced to one mile (and possibly less than that) close to the wildfire. By April 10th the forecast had changed and the plume of smoke was moving south toward Orlando and Daytona Beach.
Above: Pyrocumulus clouds
Just west of the fire, a number of pyrocumulus clouds are visible in the satellite images. Large fires can rapidly heat the air above a fire, and the heated air rises with smoke until water vapor in the atmosphere condenses into a puffy cloud. In satellite imagery, pyrocumulus clouds appear as patches of white capping otherwise dark columns of smoke.
Winds are shifting today to the north which will send the enormous columns of smoke down the Florida peninsula toward Orlando and beyond. Pete Kubiak, Florida Wildfire Southern Area Type 2 Incident Command Team Operations Chief, said plants and vegetation in the area of the fire are challenging because they're providing more fuels for the fire even though they are green.
Quoted in the Lake City Reporter Mr. Kubiak said, "This time of the year because of the drought conditions that we have in the area, we’re getting a lot of fire behavior out of the fuels,” he said. “The vegetation out there, the green fuels – palmetto, gallberry, and titi plants and things like that are burning quite well. The leafy materials on that vegetation emits a waxy substance and that becomes very volatile and flammable and it adds to the fire behavior and the conditions that we’ve been experiencing out there.” Mr. Kubiak went on to say that the fire is creating its own winds as it continues to consume property.
FLORIDA WILDFIRE FORECAST
In a wildfire season forecast, the Florida Forest Service pointed out that La Niña has had a significant drying impact in recent years; it has caused near-record warmth and unusually low levels of rainfall across the state. The forest service expects that temperature and rainfall will likely return to normal levels in the coming months as the effects of La Niña dissipate. Nonetheless, forecasters expect above-normal wildfire potential through the spring.
NOTABLE REFERENCES
Fire in Florida. University of Florida IFAS Extension.Florida Forest Service. Fire Weather Outlook. Accessed April 9, 2012.
Smog Blog. Fires in Florida Causing Unhealthy Air Quality. Accessed April 9, 2012.
The Baker County Press. Osceola Wildfire Renamed, Grows to 11,701 Acres. Accessed April 7, 2012.
NASA image by Jeff Schmaltz, LANCE/EOSDIS MODIS Rapid Response.
NOAA FORECASTS
NOAA forecasts from Tampa, Melbourne and Jacksonville
call for more of the same for the foreseeable future.
Other fires burning across Florida are making smoky conditions worse.
Today a weak, dry cold front has shifted winds to the North, Northeast causing the
smoke from the Columbia Line Fire to move into the Orlando area.
There is no change in the hot and dry forecast for the foreseeable future. Though Floridians can hope that normal rainfall patterns return as La Niña wanes over the next two months.