Dropping temperatures kept smoke in the area

Dropping temperatures were the reason smoke in Bayou Vista stayed close to the ground and spread across the Tri-City area.
Bayou Vista Firefighter Josh Ashley said his department noted a sugar cane field burning across the bayou directly behind the central fire station on La. 182. That fire along Victoria Riverside Road occurred around 1:30 p.m., and the smoke had spread into Bayou Vista by about 3 p.m., Ashley said.
Ashley and Mark Stephens, Morgan City substitute fire chief, said the wind and temperature inversion determines whether smoke goes up into the atmosphere or spreads close to the ground.
Basically “it all accumulates when temperature drops,” Ashley said.
Both firefighters said smoke settling across the area usually occurs around this time of the year as sugar cane fields and marshes are burned.
Stephens said his department responded to one fire call during the hours that the smoke blanketed the parish, but it was unrelated.
Traci Landry, St. Mary Sheriff’s spokeswoman, said deputies reported smoke in Franklin, Charenton, Baldwin and Bayou Vista. There is no way to know whether the west end smoke and the east end smoke originated from the same fire.