May 18--The National Weather Service has issued a dense smoke advisory and warns visibilities will be limited to a quarter of a mile or less in many South Florida areas from 10 Sunday night until 10 a.m. Monday.
The weather service blamed a wildfire that continues to burn in the Everglades in Miami-Dade County and said it will also affect Broward County, especially its western suburbs, including Pembroke Pines and Miramar.
Other wildfires in Lake Okeechobee's dry lakebed will send smoke into surrounding areas tonight, too. Dense smoke is expected to develop near the lake across Glades, Hendry and Palm Beach counties. Visibilities of a quarter of a mile or less are expected. Motorists travelling along U.S. 27, U.S. 98, U.S. 441, U.S. 78 or other roadways near Lake Okeechobee overnight should drive with extreme caution as visibilities will be suddenly reduced to a quarter of a mile or less.
In the area around Lake Okeechobee, the Florida Highway Patrol was using electronic highway signs to warn people about the lingering smoke, and areas northeast of the lake were continuing to experience haze from the fires, said Division of Forestry spokeswoman Melissa Yunas.
The advisory warned dense smoke with visibilities reduced to a quarter of a mile or less is most probable later this evening over the hammocks and west Kendall near Krome Avenue in Miami-Dade county.
Overnight.smoke will spread out and is expected to become locally dense as far north coastal and central Broward County, especially over the western suburbs, including Pembroke Pines and Miramar.
Motorists traveling along Krome Avenue, Tamiami Trail, the Florida Turnpike and other roadways are urged to drive with extreme caution Sunday night as visibilities will be suddenly reduced to less than a quarter of a mile in isolated locations, the service's advisory said.
Earlier in the day, the weathers service said it expected record high temperatures Sunday afternoon. Temperatures should reach the low- to mid-90's, record highs for this time of year.
Meanwhile, the Florida Divison of Forestry, which handles fires on state property, says it was fighting 90 fires around the state. Those total about 39,500 acres, up about 500 acres from Saturday. The majority of fires are in Glades County around Lake Okeechobee and on the coast in Brevard County.
In addition, in Everglades National Park, which is federal property, another 21,000 acres were on fire. That fire was 20 percent contained, according to the Florida Division of Forestry. No structures were threatened, but the Division of Forestry reported that the area is the only known habitat for the endangered Cape Sable Seaside Sparrow.
Meanwhile, in the area around Lake Okeechobee, the Florida Highway Patrol was using electronic highway signs to warn people about lingering smoke, and areas along Florida's Treasure Coast were continuing to experience haze from the fires, said Division of Forestry spokeswoman Melissa Yunas.
In Brevard County, where a number of homes burned earlier in the week, fires were 75 percent contained on Sunday, up about 5 percent from the previous day, said State Division of Forestry spokesman Todd Schroeder. In addition, firefighters were actively fighting one approximately 600 acre fire in a swampy area of Cocoa, but it was not threatening any structures and was between 50 and 60 percent contained, Schroeder said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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