If you’ve gone outside at all today, you’ve probably smelled the smoke from the wildfires in south Georgia. The Big Turnaround and Bugaboo fires in the Okefenokee swamp continue to burn and, as we saw last week, the smoke can stretch 200 miles north to Atlanta.

The image below was taken about 9:45 this morning by NASA satellite, and it’s obvious that smoke is plaguing much of the state:

What’s actually happening is that winds in the south part of the state are blowing the smoke towards Augusta and South Carolina. Once the smoke got towards the mountains, they were redirected towards Atlanta, as can be seen by the plume on the left. The current Georgia satellite image shows that the winds have changed further south, so we should be seeing less smoke towards the evening, and tomorrow.

The wildfires that have burned in south Georgia for almost three weeks now continue to be visible on satellite images. The picture below, taken about 10 AM this morning shows smoke drifting from northern Florida to eastern South Carolina:

The Savannah area has especially suffered from low visibility due to smoke over the last few days, while smoke continues to plague the Valdosta area, although not as much as it did on Monday.

There might be some relief on the way this weekend, as the slow-moving storm that started earlier this week finally reaches Georgia. Some parts of north Georgia have reported spotty rainfall this afternoon, and it looks like the chance of rain will increase through Saturday. Expected precipitation amounts could be about half an inch over the weekend, although probably less in the area affected by the fires.

Forecasters are expressing low confidence in their predictions for this weekend because of the nature of the front. Right now, a stationary front is draped over the Georgia - Tennessee - North Carolina border, and it will be pushed south over the next few days by high pressure to the north. This is likely to cause cold air damming, or a wedge to set up over our area — fairly unusual for this late in the season.

Meanwhile, the long range outlook for fires in the southeast US doesn’t look very good.

The National Interagency Fire Center Wildfire Potential outlook for May through August, 2007 calls for an above normal chance of wildfires for much of South Georgia and Florida, as well as a section of Western North Carolina and Virginia. The agency looks for relief later this summer as potential La Nina conditions and tropical weather could bring in rainfall.

The wildfires that started two weeks ago when a tree fell on an electric power line near Waycross, Georgia have now consumed almost 79,000 acres, or about 100 square miles. A NASA satellite image, taken about noon on Sunday, shows the extent of the smoke and the location of the fire:

You can also look at the latest Georgia Visible Satellite Image to see the current spread of the smoke.

The fire is the largest in Georgia history, and is now estimated to be 70% under control. Residents across South Georgia and North Florida are being confronted with smoke, especially in Lanier and Lowndes counties near Valdosta, where a Dense Smoke Advisory has been issued until 5 AM Tuesday. Visibilities in some areas are limited to 1/4 mile.

The weather hasn’t been cooperating, with the southeast part of the state suffering the worst from Georgia’s drought. There is a 20% chance of rainfall later on this week.