Florida Burning

"There are fires burning in 52 of Florida’s 67 counties," stated last week by Florida Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp. The rain hasn't fallen around here for more than a minute in a looong time. Usually if there is even enough clouds in the sky to generate rain, all they do is spark lightning (making more fires) and then fizzling within 15-20 minutes. I knew there where some pretty big ones located throughout the state, and assumed there where some others, but had no idea so many other incidents where ocurring. Here's a map of the fires from the 9^th at 1600.

The drought index caused by this severe lack of precipitation is quite high, all the counties are in pretty bad shape with the exception of Monroe & Dade. Here’s a chart illustrating each counties draught index.

During my commute to and from Orlando, I wake up to a mixture of fog and smoke that has settled low to the Earth. This is because the air is much more dense in the early morning (that’s why birds always are singing, their voice travels further). One morning the smoke covered an area from Orange City to Orlando and then out to Ocoee (that’s about 180² miles, most likely it was much more).

On my way back home, I managed to snap this impressive pyrocumulus while dealing with rush hour.

Here’s a composite I made real quick of the drought index vs. the amount of fires.