Florida & Georgia Wildfires, Smoke Over Takes Florida

The Southern Georgia and northern Florida wildfires have made the last 48 hours over Florida extremely Smokey. As seen in the included visible satellite image, you can see how bad the smoke was on Friday coming down the Gulf coast side of the state and then turning into South Florida. The smoke plume from the Georgia wildfires is huge, and only added to the smoke and haze issues over the southern part of the state where smoke was already in place from wildfires in Lee county, outside of Ft Myers.

The very large wildfires near Starke and Lake City Florida, have grown into massive wildfires out of control. Over 350 sq miles have burned now, and the fires have cause evacuations of 100s in the area, and is affecting parts of I-10 and I-75. Several homes in the area of Little Lake Sante Fe west of Keystone Heights were evacuated as officials continued to fight windswept wildfires in nearby Bradford and Alachua counties.

Here is a list of the large fires that are ongoing as of last nights report:

Bugaboo Fire located in Baker County, FL. Acres Burned: 82,000 / 0-10% contained.
Dairy Road Fire located in Bradford County, FL. Acres Burned: 15,906 / 35% contained.
Balsa Fire located in Collier County, FL. Acres Burned: 18,027 / 90% contained.
WF Airport Road Fire Flagler County, FL. Acres Burned: 6,800 / 60% contained.
Red Oak Fire located in Lake County, FL. Acres Burned: 881 / 95% contained.
Lee Fire located in Lake County, FL. Acres Burned: 2,551 / 50% contained.
Blackcreek Command Fire Walton County, FL. Acres Burned: 1,035 / 80% contained.
Middle of Nowhere Fire, located in Charlotte County, FL. Acres Burned: 4,000 / 65% contained.

From the Florida Department of Forestry…

The Bugaboo Fire originated on Bugaboo Island in the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge. The fire ran south to the Florida state line on Tuesday morning (5/8/2007) and crossed in to Florida in the Baker County area. The fire has been burning on the Osceola National Forest and the John Bethea State Forest and tripled in size overnight (May 10th) as it moved toward Highway 441 and Interstate Highway 10. Mandatory evacuations have been ordered along both sides of Highway 441 from Interstate Highway 10 to the Florida state line. Bugaboo is being managed in unified command with the U.S Forest Service Blue Incident Management Team.

Florida Wildfires Map Picture May 2007 The Florida wildfires are expected to continue through the weekend, and continue to send heavy thick smoke down the spin of Florida. Rain chances increase on Sunday and Monday, as a back door cold front moves into the area, but the severe drought conditions will take more than a day or two of rain to help the wildfire situation. Isolated lightning storms help with rain, but also bring on more fires from the cloud-to-ground lightning. Subtropical Storm Andrea would have been a great way to put out some of the fires and help the drought, but instead, she only increased the dry winds, spreading the wildfires, and cause a ton of beach erosion and surge damage along the east coast. Her lack of rains, and position just off the Florida coast, only made things worst.

I’ll continue to monitor the wildfires over the state through the weekend. I’m also watch the thunderstorm outlook later today and on sunday, for any possible local chases. I’ll update again later this evening and on sunday, concerning the Florida wildfires and drought conditions of May 2007.

Update: 2:27pm ET:

WILDFIRE UPDATE NEAR LAKE CITY, FL (30.19N 82.64W) 05/12/2007 COLUMBIA, COUNTY FL REPORTED BY: EMERGENCY MNGR SEVERAL ACCIDENTS HAVE OCCURRED ON INTERSTATES 10 AND 75 DUE TO SMOKE FROM WILDFIRES. VISIBILITY ON AREA ROADS IS NEAR ZERO. INTERSTATES 10 AND 75 ARE BEING CLOSED INCOLUMBIA COUNTY.

Thunderstorms are getting READY to fire over South-central Florida along several boundries over the next few hours. Currently monitoring for severe weather. On standby for pulse storms.
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