Thursday, January 09, 2025

Los Angeles Wildfire Maps

Five wildfires are currently burning in Los Angeles. At the time of writing, three of the fires remain uncontained. So far, the fires have claimed at least five lives, and 137,000 people have been evacuated. Over 1,000 structures, including many homes, have also been lost.

The Los Angeles Time's California Widlfires Map uses data from CalFire, the National Interagency Fire Center, and the Geospatial Multi-Agency Coordination to show the locations of active fires. On the map, mandatory evacuation zones are shown in red, and evacuation warning areas are highlighted in yellow. A sidebar provides further information on each active fire, including the number of acres burned and the duration of each fire.

The Washington Post is also Mapping the L.A. wildfires. Their series of static maps shows the extent of each fire, areas under evacuation orders and evacuation warnings, and the number of people affected by evacuation mandates for each blaze.

map showing a large area of southern California covered by a Red Flag warning

Weather conditions contributing to the wildfires’ spread are expected to persist through the weekend. The National Weather Service has issued a Red Flag Warning for much of Southern California. According to the warning, "high winds and low relative humidity will continue critical fire weather conditions in Southern California through Friday."

A Red Flag Warning signifies that "critical fire weather conditions are either occurring now or will shortly. A combination of strong winds, low relative humidity, and warm temperatures can contribute to extreme fire behavior."

The Guardian has published a series of before-and-after satellite images illustrating the scale of destruction from the Pacific Palisades and Eaton fires. Their feature, Before and after the California fires uses imagery from Maxar Technologies to visualize the extent of the damage caused to some areas of L.A.

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