Most timely source of California Fire Map data?

Question

Fire season always has me scouring the web for satellite fire map information. Unfortunately many of the locations I find are outdated or not maintained well. What would be the best site to go to for the most timely fire data?

Answer 1

There's the "Active Fire Perimeters" service on arcgis.com: http://www.arcgis.com/home/item.html?id=6940c058e2bf49b6a14a6e625df81216

You could also go directly to the source that Esri is using: http://rmgsc.cr.usgs.gov/outgoing/GeoMAC/ I believe the ActiveFirePerimeters.kml link is the one you want.

Finally, NIFC is a good provider of up to date info although I don't know of anything they provide that is readily usable by a GIS (but I haven't look too hard either): http://www.nifc.gov/fire_info/nfn.htm

Answer 2

The active fire map data from the forest service is up-to-date remote sensed data: Active Fire Mapping Program

They have the data available in KML among other formats.

Answer 3

Also check out the MODIS subsets at:
http://lance-modis.eosdis.nasa.gov/imagery/subsets/?area=na

Or you can download near-realtime hot-spots from FIRMS:

http://earthdata.nasa.gov/data/near-real-time-data/firms