OIL ODORS IN TAMPA?!!!
What are you guys smelling where and how bad? Looking at the models and winds this didn't seem likely to happen so fast. Could it be from some bastard washing out his bilges as happened so often years past or is this the big one moving in?
Found this for today dealing with Pensacola, a lot closer to this mess:
"Smell that? Oil is in the air in Pensacola
Pensacola, Florida -- Pensacola Beach lifeguards reported about 5 p.m. Friday a kerosene-like smell that Escambia County officials say is likely related to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
"Escambia County officials have deployed staff to check the waters. However, there is no oil sheen or slick sighted near our coastlines," Escambia County spokeswoman Sonya Daniel said in a news release.
A Friday afternoon breeze out of the south and southwest is believed to have carried the smell to the area, Santa Rosa Island Authority Public Safety Director Bob West said.
The smell was reported at various locations on Pensacola Beach as well as in the Navarre and Gulf Breeze areas.
"It's very minute; it took me a couple of seconds to smell it," West said. "It's nice to be able to document the first effects, but I'm not surprised."
Continued at:
http://www.wtsp.com/news/state/story...31613&catid=19
Found the following from a week ago:
"Once oil reaches the surface of the water, winds and currents are the two main mechanisms that can spread it.
Wind is the most obvious as we have already seen it spread the oil toward the coastline of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. The wind can easily spread the oil in any direction according to the direction the wind is blowing from and the intensity of the wind. Just after the initial explosion and resulting oil leak, the winds in the spill area were blowing WNW in the 15-30 kts range. Those winds continued toward the west coast of Florida for several days. That spread the oil slick eastward extending it as far east as due south of Pensacola, Fl.
Here in the Bay area, there were widespread reports of an odor in the air. Air quality tests have proved to be inconclusive, but it is not a far stretch to believe the odor came from the incident. That possibility seems even more likely when you consider the smell went way once the winds here then turned SE-S. That would blow the odor back toward the northern Gulf of Mexico.
Recent winds near the spill site have blown SSE-SSW blowing the oil toward the Gulf coast and resulting in some oil washing ashore and with some sea life being affected The winds will remain out of the SSW-SW continuing to blow the oil near shore until Tuesday. "
Continued at:
http://www.wtsp.com/news/mostpop/sto...6&provider=top
p.s. - Nice idea and performance Flkiter thanks for posting!