Where is it burning right now?
Each dot is a spot where a NASA satellite measured heat stronger than its surroundings on its latest pass. The colour says how fresh the detection is, the size how strong. Click a dot for details, zoom in for the real footprints.
The satellites recorded no detections in Europe in this period.
A satellite sees heat, not fire. A dot arrives 3 to 5 hours after the pass and marks the centre of a pixel 375 m to 1 km wide. Clouds and smoke hide fires; factories, sun glint and field burning create false dots. The map is informational and not for decisions about the safety of people or property. In an emergency call 112.
Strongest fires in the last 7 days
Detections grouped into events by distance and time. Power is the sum of FRP in the strongest pass. The nearest place is a landmark, not the fire's location.
- Loading detections…
How to read the map
Each dot is one pixel of a satellite image in which the sensor measured heat stronger than its surroundings. The VIIRS instruments on Suomi NPP, NOAA-20 and NOAA-21 have a 375 m pixel; MODIS on Terra and Aqua has 1 km. A fire is usually smaller than the pixel, so a dot says "something burns around here", not "it burns exactly here". Zoomed in, dots become rectangles of the pixel's real size.
Colour shows age: dark red is under six hours, red up to twelve, orange up to a day, yellow older. The size of a dot grows with the fire radiative power (FRP) in megawatts. Several strong dots in one area across several passes are almost certainly a real fire; a single weak dot is often something else.
Satellites pass over Europe a few times a day, mostly around noon and around midnight. Between passes the map does not change, even if a fire grows. NASA publishes the data three to five hours after a pass, and we fetch it within ten minutes.
Confidence is the algorithm's rating, not a confirmation. Low confidence means a weak signal, for instance a small fire or the edge of the swath, and we draw those dots more transparent. Persistent heat sources such as factories, refineries and gas flares are filtered as far as possible.
Frequently asked questions
How current is the map?
The files refresh every ten minutes, but the detections themselves depend on satellite passes and NASA's processing, so they are three to five hours old when they appear. The time of the latest pass is shown above the map.
Why do I see a dot where there is no fire?
The sensor measures heat, not flames. Factories, refineries, solar plants, sun glint on water and stubble burning produce a fire-like signal. That is why every dot carries a confidence rating and known persistent sources are filtered.
Why can't I see a fire that is definitely burning?
Clouds and thick smoke hide a fire from the satellite completely. A small or smouldering fire under the canopy can also go unnoticed. And between two passes, which can be hours apart, the map simply has no new data.
May I use this map to decide about evacuation?
No. The data is informational and late. For decisions about the safety of people and property only the instructions of the emergency services count; in Europe call 112.
Where does the data come from and may I share it?
The detections come from NASA's LANCE FIRMS system and are published as open data. You may share a link to the map or a screenshot; credit NASA FIRMS as the source.
Does the map cover the whole world?
Europe for now, from Iceland to the Urals and from the North Sea to the Mediterranean. A global view is planned.
Read next
About the data
Satellite data: NASA LANCE FIRMS , part of NASA's Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS), published as open data (CC0). Instruments: VIIRS (Suomi NPP, NOAA-20, NOAA-21) and MODIS (Terra, Aqua), near real time (NRT).
The data is provided as is, without warranty. Neither NASA nor FireCustos is liable for decisions made on the basis of this map; satellite detections are not suited to tactical decision-making or to judging conditions at a local scale. This page is not affiliated with NASA, and NASA does not endorse FireCustos. More about the data's limits (NASA FIRMS).
Place names: GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Base map: OpenFreeMap, © OpenStreetMap.