Ontario Satellite Hotspots
Track satellite thermal detections across Ontario without treating each detection as a forest fire. The map opens over Ontario with NASA FIRMS hotspots isolated from official AFFES incident records.
What a hotspot can tell you
A visible point represents a recent satellite-detected heat signal included in FireRadar’s NASA FIRMS feed. Several points close together can relate to one fire, multiple fires, repeated satellite observations, or another heat source. Hotspots can add independent observation context around a known incident, especially in remote areas.
What it cannot tell you
A hotspot is not an official incident record, fire perimeter, control status, evacuation area, or proof that a wildfire is out of control. Cloud, heavy smoke, orbit timing, surface conditions, and source filtering can also hide or duplicate detections. Use the official wildfire layer when you need a named incident and source status.
Why local geography matters
Ontario's vast northern forests, peatlands, mines, communities, industrial sites, and large distances make satellite observations useful but easy to over-interpret. Several points can represent repeated observations of one fire, and a missing point does not prove no fire exists. Ontario AFFES remains authoritative for confirmed forest-fire information.
Do not count hotspots as wildfires
FireRadar deliberately keeps NASA FIRMS detections outside direct-official wildfire totals. A map with many thermal points can represent fewer confirmed incidents, repeated observations, or non-wildfire heat. A map with no visible hotspot is also not proof that no wildfire is present.
Satellite source
FireRadar uses NASA FIRMS VIIRS thermal-detection data for this observation layer. Official Ontario incident records stay in FireRadar’s wildfire layer and retain their own source provenance.
Open NASA FIRMS →