Geospatial Community Responding to Crisis with Public Information California Wildfire Maps

Sadly, here we go once again with wildfires in the news and the wildfire season is again upon us [California]. Many of you, our friends and colleagues, live, work and play in areas that are prone to extreme heat, winds and wildfires. It is also reassuring to see and hear about some of the great technology that the geospatial industry has developed to help plan for wild season and to assist in response efforts. The following are several useful resources to help monitor recent wildfire activity in California.

Note: for the latest California wildfire incident updates, see this page from CALfire

Esri Ventura wildfires emergency response map

Two fires erupted recently in Southern California. The Thomas fire in Ventura County started last night and has burned 45,000 acres and destroyed more than 150 structures. The Creek fire is burning near Sylmar and has prompted officials to evacuate more than 8,000 homes. Note, these numbers have changed considerably since these data we’re obtained. Use this interactive map to keep up-to-date on events around the fires including the latest Tweets and crowdsourced data and updates.


US Wildfire Public Information Map

View continuously updated information about wildfires and their perimeters from the USGS and other agencies. You can also see live weather warnings and wind information from NOAA, as well as live weather radar from AccuWeather. Get a local perspective on events by turning on geotagged social media from Twitter, YouTube, and Flickr on the Layers tab.


Global Forest Fires Watch webmap

A truly mesmerizing map that shares real-time data from MODIS, NOAA, VIIRS and other soures to identify locations of Active fires. Additionally, air quality data, fire risk warnings, land use, land cover and wind data are displayed on the map, producing an impressive and sometimes eerie visualization.


PJDoherty’s Live fire web app

Live Fire Web App

More Wildfire Mapping Resources

See Also these must bookmark wildfire incident and mapping resources:

  1. San Diego County Emergency Site
  2. Read more about how the USFS is using PDF Maps
  3. The Wildfire Activity Map in ArcGIS Online
  4. CalFire – active wildfire mapping system
  5. Esri wildfire response system
  6. GeoMAC Wildfire viewer
  7. InciWeb Incident information system
  8. USGS real-time wildfire information
  9. Mapbox mapping wildfires with data feeds
  10. Global incident wildfire maps
  11. Active Fire Mapping Program
  12. California Air Quality – Airnow
  13. FlameMapper

Is there a wildfire or public information webmap resource that you know about? Please do share with us below via comment or via Tweet to @geojobegis

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