Wildfire smoke
2007 Georgia-Florida wildfire-smoke transport episode
Daily PM2.5 peaked at 137.3 µg/m³ near Tampa across 13 covered metros home to 29 million people. 4 metros recorded their worst day on record; 9 placed a top-ten day.
Counting the extra PM2.5 above each metro's typical day, this event handed the average affected resident ≈ 6.6 cigarettes. Across everyone living in the affected metros, that is the collective equivalent of ≈ 192 million cigarettes. An awareness illustration of outdoor exposure at 22 µg/m³ per cigarette (Berkeley Earth), counting only the event's ranked days; not a medical dose.
Episode peak
-- cigarettes
The smoke map's scale, replayed over this event: the surface interpolates between covered metros' daily records, framed to the affected region. Hover for a reading, click a metro to pin it to the card. Days a monitor did not report draw nothing.
What happened, in the record
Supporting records describe regional smoke transport from Georgia-Florida fires, with the official Georgia assessment identifying Ware County and northern Florida fires as contributors during this May-to-early-June episode. Supporting records describe regional smoke transport from Georgia-Florida fires, with the official Georgia assessment identifying Ware County and northern Florida fires as contributors during this May-to-early-June episode. Supporting records describe regional smoke transport from Georgia-Florida fires, with the official Georgia assessment identifying Ware County and northern Florida fires as contributors during this May-to-early-June episode. Supporting records describe regional smoke transport from Georgia-Florida fires, with the official Georgia assessment identifyin
Sequence: Deltona (May 9) → Orlando (May 9) → Jacksonville (May 9) → Palm Bay (May 9) → Tampa (May 11) → Miami (May 11) → Lakeland (May 12) → Cape Coral (May 12) → North Port (May 12) → Atlanta (May 22) → +3 more metros
Affected metros
| Metro | Peak PM2.5 | Cigarettes, whole event | Peak day | All-time standing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL | 137.3 µg/m³ | 13.8 | May 11, 2007 | Worst day on record |
| Deltona-Daytona Beach-Ormond Beach, FL | 114.3 µg/m³ | 6.5 | May 9, 2007 | Worst day on record |
| Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, FL | 81 µg/m³ | 6.8 | May 9, 2007 | Worst day on record |
| Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA | 79.8 µg/m³ | 7.2 | May 22, 2007 | #2 of its top days |
| Jacksonville, FL | 75.8 µg/m³ | 9.1 | May 9, 2007 | Worst day on record |
| Birmingham-Hoover, AL | 64.3 µg/m³ | 5.5 | May 30, 2007 | #2 of its top days |
| Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL | 57.5 µg/m³ | 11.4 | May 12, 2007 | #5 of its top days |
| Lakeland-Winter Haven, FL | 55.3 µg/m³ | 2.5 | May 12, 2007 | #3 of its top days |
| Chattanooga, TN-GA | 48 µg/m³ | 6.3 | Jun 1, 2007 | #12 of its top days |
| Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin, TN | 41.1 µg/m³ | 1.9 | May 30, 2007 | #20 of its top days |
| Cape Coral-Fort Myers, FL | 34.1 µg/m³ | 1.6 | May 12, 2007 | #3 of its top days |
| North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton, FL | 28.3 µg/m³ | 2.5 | May 12, 2007 | #14 of its top days |
| Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, FL | 23.5 µg/m³ | 1.1 | May 9, 2007 | #19 of its top days |
"Cigarettes, whole event" totals a metro's ranked event days at 22 µg/m³ per cigarette: what a person outdoors there breathed across the event, as the illustration. "All-time standing" is where this episode's days sit in each metro's ranked record (worst-area measure, since 1999). Full local context is on each metro's Air Records page.
The evidence
EPA AQS monitor qualifier 33
- AQS PM2.5 qualifier RT — Wildfire-U. S. EPA AQS carries an agency-submitted request-exclusion qualifier (RT, Wildfire-U. S.) on 1 PM2.5 sample in the candidate CBSA on 2007-05-09, identifying wildfire smoke as affecting the sample. A request-exclusion qualifier is an official submitting-agency causal claim, but this endpoint does not establish EPA concurrence.
- AQS PM2.5 qualifier RT — Wildfire-U. S. EPA AQS carries an agency-submitted request-exclusion qualifier (RT, Wildfire-U. S.) on 2 PM2.5 samples in the candidate CBSA on 2007-05-10, identifying wildfire smoke as affecting the samples. A request-exclusion qualifier is an official submitting-agency causal claim, but this endpoint does not establish EPA concurrence.
- AQS PM2.5 qualifier RT — Wildfire-U. S. EPA AQS carries an agency-submitted request-exclusion qualifier (RT, Wildfire-U. S.) on 1 PM2.5 sample in the candidate CBSA on 2007-05-09, identifying wildfire smoke as affecting the sample. A request-exclusion qualifier is an official submitting-agency causal claim, but this endpoint does not establish EPA concurrence.
- AQS PM2.5 qualifier RT — Wildfire-U. S. EPA AQS carries an agency-submitted request-exclusion qualifier (RT, Wildfire-U. S.) on 3 PM2.5 samples in the candidate CBSA on 2007-05-09, identifying wildfire smoke as affecting the samples. A request-exclusion qualifier is an official submitting-agency causal claim, but this endpoint does not establish EPA concurrence.
- AQS PM2.5 qualifier RT — Wildfire-U. S. EPA AQS carries an agency-submitted request-exclusion qualifier (RT, Wildfire-U. S.) on 3 PM2.5 samples in the candidate CBSA on 2007-05-08, identifying wildfire smoke as affecting the samples. A request-exclusion qualifier is an official submitting-agency causal claim, but this endpoint does not establish EPA concurrence.
- AQS PM2.5 qualifier RT — Wildfire-U. S. EPA AQS carries an agency-submitted request-exclusion qualifier (RT, Wildfire-U. S.) on 1 PM2.5 sample in the candidate CBSA on 2007-05-10, identifying wildfire smoke as affecting the sample. A request-exclusion qualifier is an official submitting-agency causal claim, but this endpoint does not establish EPA concurrence.
- AQS PM2.5 qualifier RT — Wildfire-U. S. EPA AQS carries an agency-submitted request-exclusion qualifier (RT, Wildfire-U. S.) on 2 PM2.5 samples in the candidate CBSA on 2007-05-08, identifying wildfire smoke as affecting the samples. A request-exclusion qualifier is an official submitting-agency causal claim, but this endpoint does not establish EPA concurrence.
- AQS PM2.5 qualifier RT — Wildfire-U. S. EPA AQS carries an agency-submitted request-exclusion qualifier (RT, Wildfire-U. S.) on 3 PM2.5 samples in the candidate CBSA on 2007-05-10, identifying wildfire smoke as affecting the samples. A request-exclusion qualifier is an official submitting-agency causal claim, but this endpoint does not establish EPA concurrence.
- AQS PM2.5 qualifier RT — Wildfire-U. S. EPA AQS carries an agency-submitted request-exclusion qualifier (RT, Wildfire-U. S.) on 2 PM2.5 samples in the candidate CBSA on 2007-05-13, identifying wildfire smoke as affecting the samples. A request-exclusion qualifier is an official submitting-agency causal claim, but this endpoint does not establish EPA concurrence.
- AQS PM2.5 qualifier RT — Wildfire-U. S. EPA AQS carries an agency-submitted request-exclusion qualifier (RT, Wildfire-U. S.) on 3 PM2.5 samples in the candidate CBSA on 2007-05-12, identifying wildfire smoke as affecting the samples. A request-exclusion qualifier is an official submitting-agency causal claim, but this endpoint does not establish EPA concurrence.
- AQS PM2.5 qualifier RT — Wildfire-U. S. EPA AQS carries an agency-submitted request-exclusion qualifier (RT, Wildfire-U. S.) on 3 PM2.5 samples in the candidate CBSA on 2007-05-11, identifying wildfire smoke as affecting the samples. A request-exclusion qualifier is an official submitting-agency causal claim, but this endpoint does not establish EPA concurrence.
- AQS PM2.5 qualifier RT — Wildfire-U. S. EPA AQS carries an agency-submitted request-exclusion qualifier (RT, Wildfire-U. S.) on 1 PM2.5 sample in the candidate CBSA on 2007-05-12, identifying wildfire smoke as affecting the sample. A request-exclusion qualifier is an official submitting-agency causal claim, but this endpoint does not establish EPA concurrence.
- +21 more EPA AQS records on file
Agency and publisher pages 8
- 2007 Georgia Ambient Air Surveillance Report Georgia EPD's May 26-28 Atlanta episode assessment found trajectories, satellite imagery, and smoke observations supported direct contributions from Ware County, Georgia and northern Florida wildfires to elevated particle pollution in northwest and western Georgia, including metro Atlanta.
- NASA MODIS Image of the Day: May 10, 2007 - Fires in Georgia and Florida The NASA MODIS report states that fires on May 8 produced thick smoke plumes that flowed south and west over the Gulf of Mexico, corroborating regional smoke transport during the candidate period.
- Fla.-Ga. State Line Blaze Contemporaneous AP photo reporting states that haze and a burning smell affected Florida and southeastern Georgia amid the state-line wildfire, corroborating smoke conditions during the event.
- Smoke & Haze A contemporaneous report quoting NWS Huntsville described smoke plumes advecting into north Alabama, north Georgia, and southeast Tennessee, with reduced visibility around Birmingham's region.
- Smoke from wildfire fills Atlanta air Contemporaneous AP reporting identified smoke in Atlanta as wind-transported from major fires along the Georgia-Florida line.
- Satellite Remote Sensing and Mesoscale Modeling of the 2007 Georgia/Florida Fires NASA's project summary states that 2007 Georgia-Florida fires had major near-surface PM impacts across the Southeast and that impacts were observed in Birmingham through elevated aerosol optical depth and PM2.5.
- Fires in Georgia and Florida NASA documents the Bugaboo Fire beginning in the Okefenokee Swamp in early May and spreading south into Florida; it does not assess the candidate monitors.
- Incident Management Situation Report, May 17, 2007 The federal incident report documents large active Florida and Georgia fires during the May 11–13 candidate period, but it does not assign the Tampa PM2.5 observation to a source.
What remains uncertain
- AQS qualifiers are submitting-agency causal flags and do not by themselves establish EPA concurrence.
- The evidence supports a multi-fire transport episode, not attribution to one single named fire at every affected monitor.
Status and provenance
Research preview: this record carries research-only status and its boundaries, cause, and name may change as evidence review completes. Grouping policy common_sense_root_cause_grouping.v2. The cause label reflects the assembled evidence above, not an IAQng detection formula.