31 August 2011
Swamp Fire Chokes The Big Easy
Posted by Dan Satterfield
The image above is from the NASA Terra satellite. Click it to see the higher resolution.
From NOAA- click to make Louisiana bigger.
The smoke is from a marsh fire near New Orleans and the state doesn’t have enough money to charter planes to drop water on it and the reason is explained by the graph below. Most of Louisiana has only received about 25% of normal rainfall, in the last 30 days. This is called a meteorological drought, because the crops are not doing as bad due to heavier rains earlier in the summer (July was rather wet in the region).
When the dam is low, you have hydrological drought and when the crops die, it’s an agricultural drought. When everything dies and the dams dry up, it’s a TEXAS drought.
Dan Satterfield has worked as an on air meteorologist for 32 years in Oklahoma, Florida and Alabama. Forecasting weather is Dan's job, but all of Earth Science is his passion. This journal is where Dan writes about things he has too little time for on air. Dan blogs about peer-reviewed Earth science for Junior High level audiences and up.
“When everything dies and the dams dry up, it’s a TEXAS drought.”
and a wildfire in the making! I hope a good rain will lend a helping hand. What a shame that taxpayer $ are not enough to fund something so basic (though costly) as dowsing fires.