Wildfire

Wildfire Map

Meehaa's Wildfire map displays active US fire areas picked up via satellite, as well as area's subject to drought conditions.

Wildfire

A wildfire is an uncontrolled fire that burns in the wildland vegetation, often in rural areas. Wildfires can burn in forests, grasslands, savannas, and other ecosystems, and have been doing so for hundreds of millions of years. They are not limited to a particular continent or environment. Wildfires can burn in vegetation located both in and above the soil. Ground fires typically ignite in soil thick with organic matter that can feed the flames, like plant roots. Ground fires can smolder for a long time—even an entire season—until conditions are right for them to grow to a surface or crown fire. Surface fires, on the other hand, burn in dead or dry vegetation that is lying or growing just above the ground. Parched grass or fallen leaves often fuel surface fires. Crown fires burn in the leaves and canopies of trees and shrubs.

Wildfire Data

Data is pulled from the FIRMS US/Canada datasets, specifically the NASA MODIS Satellite. That data is summarized here:

Near real-time (NRT) Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Thermal Anomalies / Fire locations - Collection 6 processed by NASA's Land, Atmosphere Near real-time Capability for EOS (LANCE) Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS), using swath products (MOD14/MYD14) rather than the tiled MOD14A1 and MYD14A1 products. The thermal anomalies / active fire represent the center of a 1km pixel that is flagged by the MODIS MOD14/MYD14 Fire and Thermal Anomalies algorithm (Giglio 2003) as containing one or more fires within the pixel. This is the most basic fire product in which active fires and other thermal anomalies, such as volcanoes, are identified

Drought

Data is pulled from the US Drought Monitor site.

The Drought Monitor has been a team effort since its inception in 1999, produced jointly by the National Drought Mitigation Center (NDMC) at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). The NDMC hosts the web site of the drought monitor and the associated data, and provides the map and data to NOAA, USDA and other agencies. It is freely available at droughtmonitor.unl.edu.

The U.S. Drought Monitor is jointly produced by the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the United States Department of Agriculture, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Map courtesy of NDMC.

Wildfire Map

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Preparing for Wildfires

Wildfires are unplanned fires that burn in natural areas like forests, grasslands or prairies. These dangerous fires spread quickly and can devastate not only wildlife and natural areas, but also communities.

During A Wildfire

Pay attention to emergency alerts and notifications for information and instructions.
Evacuate immediately if authorities tell you to do so!
If trapped, call 9-1-1 and give your location, but be aware that emergency response could be delayed or impossible. Turn on lights to help rescuers find you.
Use an N95 mask to protect yourself from smoke inhalation or limit your exposure to smoke.
If you are sick and need medical attention, contact your healthcare provider for further care instructions and shelter in place, if possible.

Ready.Gov

Ready.Gov is a National public service campaign designed to educate and empower the American people to prepare for, respond to and mitigate emergencies, including natural and man-made disasters. It is maintained by The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), a part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

It is an excellent resource for information on emergency preparation and preparedness.

Wildfire Dashboard

Drought Classification

The Drought Monitor map identifies areas of drought and labels them by intensity. D1 is the least intense level and D4 the most intense. Drought is defined as a moisture deficit bad enough to have social, environmental or economic effects. D0 areas are not in drought, but are experiencing abnormally dry conditions that could turn into drought or are recovering from drought but are not yet back to normal.