What every layer, icon, and number on the
Utah Wildfire Tracker means — in plain language,
with where the data comes from and what it can and can't tell you.
Map layers
Toggle these in the layers control (top-right of the map), which also
switches the base map: Satellite (real terrain, the
default) or Dark. Live layers — aircraft, satellite,
spread — are often empty, which just means nothing to show right now.
🔥 Active fires
Fires 100+ acres, plus any fire found in the last
24 hours at any size. Source: NIFC (WFIGS/IRWIN).
🔸 Small fires (< 100 ac)
Smaller, non-new fires, split off so you can hide the clutter
(your choice is remembered). In the fire list they collapse into one
expandable row — except any that matter to your current sort (e.g. a
small fire that's growing fast, brand new, or barely contained stays
listed). Totals always count them.
🔴 Active burning
Satellite heat detections — where it's actually burning. Red =
within ~3 h (the front), orange = today, faded = older. Updates
in passes, so it can miss a fire between them. NASA FIRMS.
🟠 Possible new fires off by default
The earliest signals there are, each marked
unconfirmed and ranked by evidence.
Blue markers are 911/dispatch reports — entries
from Utah's five interagency dispatch-center logs, appearing
minutes after the call, before any satellite has seen the fire
(smoke checks included, so some come to nothing). Orange and red
markers are satellite heat with no matching official fire:
geostationary GOES spots a start within minutes
but with ~2 km pixels (dashed marker — treat the location as
approximate); polar-orbiting VIIRS pins it precisely on its next
pass; a cluster seen by both systems (red marker)
is the strongest satellite-only signal. Fires already on the
official list never appear here — their own pins take over.
➤ Spread direction
Which way a fire moved and how fast, from its two latest satellite
passes. Shown only when the motion beats sensor noise. Observed past
movement — not a forecast.
✈ Fire aircraft
Tankers, scoopers, and helicopters near Utah fires now, by replica
icon, from live ADS-B. Shared airframes (e.g. a UH-60) show only when
working within ~25 mi of a fire.
🟥 Fire perimeters
The mapped outline of the burned area — the real footprint. Lags a
fast fire's true edge. This is the "how big," not the pin.
🌫 Smoke plumes off by default
Where smoke is drifting (light/medium/heavy). Off at first paint
because a statewide plume can cover the fires themselves — turn it
on when smoke is the question. NOAA HMS.
⚠️ Weather alerts
Live NWS alerts for Utah — Red Flag Warnings, Fire Weather Watches,
and evacuation-related alerts.
🚫 Fire restrictions off by default
Current fire-restriction orders from the state's official FFSL
restrictions map, colored by severity: amber = Stage 1
(campfires only in developed sites), red = Stage 2 (no
campfires), dark red = area closure, gray dashed = an order without
a stated stage — tap it to read the order. Only mapped
state/federal/tribal orders appear; city and county rules can be
stricter.
◾ Retired fires off by default
This season's finished fires as gray pins, ranked by the most
authoritative signal available: officially declared out
(NIFC/IRWIN), controlled, 100% contained and off the
national active list, or presumed out when reporting
has been quiet for 7+ days. The sidebar's "Retired fires" list shows
the same fires with dates.
🏙 City limits off by default
Official municipal boundaries (Utah SGID), drawn as dashed blue
outlines once you zoom to city level — so you can see exactly where
a fire sits relative to town. City names show on both base maps.
Icons
Flame pins
Colored and sized by acreage (see the Fire size legend). Pulsing =
found in the last 24 h; dimmed = 90%+ contained.
🔵 Blue dot
You, if you tap the crosshair and allow location. The circle is GPS
accuracy. Stays in your browser — never sent anywhere. Tap the dot
for a campfire check: whether a mapped restriction
order covers where you're standing, with a link to the order. "No
order mapped here" is not a yes — local rules still apply.
➤ Spread arrows
Orange = measured spread; red = also wind-aligned. Speed is in the
fire's popup.
📰 Latest coverage
Fire popups pull the freshest reporting matched to that specific
fire — official posts (Utah Fire Info, tagged) ranked above
established local newsrooms, newest first.
The numbers
Active fires
All active incidents statewide — counts small ones even when hidden
on the map.
Acres burning
Total reported acreage across all fires.
New in 24 h
Fires discovered in the last day.
Growth rate
The change between the fire's last two official acreage reports,
labeled accelerating / growing / steady / slowing (1 h–7 d
window rates shown as detail in the popup). A fire whose reports
haven't changed shows an honest ≈0 with how long it's been flat.
Fire cards and popups also chart the recent acreage curve as a
small sparkline (collected around the clock at 10-minute
resolution).
🌊 Flood over a burn scar
When the NWS issues a flash-flood warning whose footprint covers
a burn area this map knows about, it appears as a blue dashed
polygon and a banner line. Burn scars shed water fast — debris
flows launch below fresh burns with very little notice. Unrelated
flood warnings stay off the fire map.
Official sources row
Every fire popup links that fire's authoritative trail — its
InciWeb page when one matches, Utah Fire Info, and AirNow's smoke
map — so you can verify in one tap.
Feed freshness strip
The footer lists every data feed with how long ago it was last
fetched — quiet when fresh, amber after two missed refresh cycles,
red when a check is failing (older data stays on screen, honestly
labeled, rather than disappearing). The VIIRS, GOES, and dispatch
chips show the time of the latest detection or report on the map
(observed-at, which can trail the fetch — by hours between VIIRS
passes, by minutes for staring GOES and the dispatch log). Fire
popups also note the age of the official report — and when a
satellite has seen the fire more recently than officials have
reported on it.
Containment
Percent of the perimeter crews have secured — not percent
put out.
Sharing a fire
The 🔗 Share this fire button in
every fire popup copies a link that reopens the map on that exact
fire. Significant fires also get their own page at
utahwildfiretracker.com/fire/<name> — a shareable
summary of size, containment, growth, and the latest coverage, with a
link back into the live map.
Sources
Official public feeds, refreshed every 5 minutes:
NIFC WFIGS (incidents, perimeters),
NOAA NGFS (GOES fire detections, minutes after observation),
NASA FIRMS (VIIRS + GOES heat detections),
interagency dispatch-center logs via WildWeb (initial-attack reports),
NOAA HMS (smoke),
NWS (alerts),
Open-Meteo (weather & air quality),
Utah FFSL (fire restrictions),
and live ADS-B receivers (aircraft).
Limits
An informational dashboard, not an emergency resource.
Satellite layers update in passes; perimeters and containment lag the
real fire; spread arrows are past movement, not a forecast.
For evacuations and official guidance, follow
Utah Fire Info,
InciWeb,
and local authorities.