What Does the Active Fire and Heat Spots Overlay on Zoom Earth Show?
The active fire and heat spots overlay on Zoom Earth shows two related but distinct layers of fire information: satellite-detected points of very high temperature (heat spots) and active fire incident data compiled from official agencies. Heat spots come from NASA LANCE FIRMS and are updated daily, not live. Active fire incident data is compiled from sources such as NIFC, CIFFC, CEMS, EFFIS, and GDACS. Use this overlay to see where intense heat or reported fire activity is concentrated on the map, but do not treat it as a real-time emergency feed.
Heat Spots vs. Active Fire Incidents
These are separate data streams that answer different questions.
| Layer | What it represents | Source | Update behavior |
|---|---|---|---|
| Heat spots | Points of very high temperature detected by satellite | NASA LANCE FIRMS | Updated daily, not live |
| Active fire incident data | Reported fire incidents | NIFC, CIFFC, CEMS, EFFIS, GDACS, and other official sources worldwide | Compiled from those sources |
A heat spot is a thermal detection, not a confirmed fire report. A very hot industrial site, a gas flare, or a similar heat source can register as a heat spot. The active fire incident layer reflects what official agencies have logged, so it carries more context but depends on those agencies' reporting.
How Often the Data Updates
The heat spots overlay updates daily. It is explicitly not a live feed, so a detection you see may reflect a satellite pass from earlier in the day rather than the current moment.
Because of this, the overlay is better suited to situational awareness over a day or a season than to minute-by-minute monitoring. If you need current, actionable fire information for safety decisions, go to the official agency responsible for your area rather than relying on the map alone.
How to Read the Overlay on the Map
- Open the Zoom Earth map and locate the overlay controls.
- Enable the heat spots overlay to display satellite-detected high-temperature points.
- Cross-reference clusters of heat spots with the active fire incident layer to see whether official sources have logged a fire in the same area.
- Use the map's measurement and location tools if you need to judge distance from a detection to a place you care about.
Expected result: you see where intense heat has been detected and where fires have been officially reported. A cluster of heat spots without a matching incident may be an unreported fire, a false positive, or a non-fire heat source — the overlay alone cannot tell you which.
Common Misreadings
- Treating heat spots as confirmed fires. They are temperature detections, not verified incidents.
- Assuming the layer is live. It updates daily, so it can lag current conditions.
- Using it as an evacuation or safety tool. It is a map overlay, not an alerting service. For warnings, follow the relevant official agency.
Practical Uses
- Tracking the general distribution of fire activity across a region over time.
- Comparing satellite heat detections against official incident reports.
- Adding fire context to the other weather and satellite layers Zoom Earth offers, such as live satellite imagery and forecast maps.
For anything where timeliness matters, verify against the original agency source named in the data attribution.