ATLANTA — More than 24 hours after a fire broke out, a plume of smoke from the BioLab fire in Conyers was still visible from space.
The video below shows a visible satellite loop over the eastern metro Atlanta area Monday morning. Circled, you'll see the plume from the BioLab fire over Rockdale county. But what you'll also notice is that it's drifted northward up through eastern DeKalb county, western Walton county, and into Gwinnett County.
Winds overnight were very light. As of 10 a.m. Monday, a nearby Georgia Mesonet station in Covington (Newton County), had southwest winds at 3 mph with gusts to 6 mph. And in Gwinnett county, the Johns Creek, Georgia Mesonet site had winds of only 1.6 mph with gusts to 4.2 mph.
An area of low clouds and fog formed overnight, especially east of the city. This fog was very dense in nearby Gwinnett county.
Numerous residents reported smelling a strong, chlorine small in the air.
That plume was also seen still sharply on many area traffic and roadway cameras, like the one below from I-20 on the east side of Conyers, looking west.
Smoke and small particles in the atmosphere can act as cloud nuclei, aiding in the formation of low clouds and fog. We see this often after July 4th fireworks, waking up with fog over metro Atlanta on the 5th. It's possible that the plume could have contributed to the overnight fog as winds turned lighter.
What will happen to winds today?
Surface winds should start to pick up this afternoon out of the west. They will not be strong, but some light breezes could drift the plume eastward some.
But this plume extends upward in height, so for that we need to look at other atmospheric wind conditions. Eighty-meter height winds (about 250 feet up), should also be westerly for a while, and then turn northwesterly (blowing from the northwest towards the southeast).
The graphic below shows a snapshot of surface winds.
What happened?
Evacuations and shelter-in-place orders were in effect after a large, intense fire broke out at a chemical plant in Conyers, Sunday.
According to officials, the fire was sparked after a sprinkler malfunctioned around 5 a.m. at the BioLab facility off Old Covington Road and reacted with a "water-reactive chemical," though officials have not given specifics on what exactly that chemical is.
The facility makes pool and spa treatments, and the chemicals involved in that process appeared to exacerbate the fire and send up huge smoke clouds.
Emergency crews had contained the fire Sunday morning, but the fire later reignited around noon, according to authorities. It was re-contained around 3:30-4 p.m. on Sunday, but multiple roads in Rockdale County remain closed due to the incident.
Right now, no injuries have been reported.