Active Fire Maps

[AstralTraveller (David)]

No doubt many of you are visiting the 'Fires Near Me' website. This, of course, is the best source of warnings and advice. However their fire maps show the burnt area, not the location of the active fire. If you want to see where the flames are now try
https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/ . Naturally the burnt areas still have smoldering logs etc and so in the right conditions fires could spring up again away from the present fires. I'm using it to watch out for a friend at Bungonia (who appears safe) and another at Nelligen (who I hope has evacuated). There are no fires at Tabulam and the ASNSW sites at Ilford and Mt Bowen appear safe at the moment.

N.B. The data on the map is some hours old and so not useful in an emergency!

[Wavytone]

Try this instead - 2 hour update cycle from a satellite with an infrared camera, hotspots mapped onto the terrain...

https://hotspots.dea.ga.gov.au/

Better than “fires near me” or the Modis satellite but it still lags well behind knowing the fire front has already passed through several towns on the south coast.

[andyc (Andy)]

Its not a 2-hour update cycle. The GA hotspots, and similar fire products rely on the TERRA, AQUA and VIIRS satellites that give only up to twice a day coverage (approximately noon and midnight for MODIS sats), and the coverage is not complete on every pass. They're brilliant for spatial resolution, but not temporal - you're lucky if they have covered your area within a few hours ago, and so should *not* be used over RFS/CFA data and advice.