Wildfires near Almaty

Fires near Almaty right now

NASA's VIIRS sensors detected 4 thermal hotspots in 3 separate clusters within 80 km of Almaty, Kazakhstan in the last 24 h. The closest is 15 km WSW of the city centre (15 km WSW of Almaty), with 1 detection and a peak fire radiative power of 2 MW, which is low-intensity for a single 375 m pixel.

2 clusters are within 25 km, close enough that smoke, ash or road closures may affect the city. Distances are measured from the city centre to the nearest detection, not to the fire's edge.

Every nearby cluster is low intensity (peak under 10 MW), which is typical of agricultural or garden burning, industrial heat sources such as steel works or flares, or small fires rather than a spreading wildfire.

The largest nearby cluster by detections is 19 km NNW (19 km NNW of Almaty) with 2 detections; first seen Sun 12 pm and last seen Sun 12 pm local time.

Across Kazakhstan there are 105 fire clusters in the same window, 5 of them in Almaty.

Smoke and wind

Wind at Almaty is from the NNW at 9 km/h (gusts 20 km/h), so smoke near the city drifts toward the SSE. Relative humidity is 69% and the temperature -2°C.

Almaty is not directly downwind of the nearest fire at the moment, though winds shift and plumes from larger fires can still reach the city.

Smoke shows up first as PM2.5 on air-quality monitors; the Almaty air quality page has the live reading.

Evacuations and official information

GodsView shows satellite detections only. It does not know fire perimeters, containment or evacuation zones. Always follow evacuation orders from local authorities.

The Global Wildfire Information System, GWIS (gwis.jrc.ec.europa.eu), maps fire danger and burnt areas worldwide; evacuation orders come from national civil protection and local authorities.

About satellite fire detections

Satellite thermal hotspots are not all wildfires: gas flares, steel works, volcanoes and planned agricultural or prescribed burns show up too. VIIRS passes over most places about twice a day, so a fire can start or grow between passes, and thick smoke or cloud can hide one.

Fire radiative power (FRP) is the heat a fire gives off, in megawatts per pixel: under 10 MW is usually a small or smouldering fire, over 100 MW an intense flaming front.

Wildfires near other cities

• Wildfires near Bishkek
• Wildfires near Taldykorgan
• Wildfires near Huocheng
• Wildfires near Ghulja
• Wildfires near Aqsu
• Wildfires near Artux

More for this area

• Fires in Kazakhstan
• Air quality in Almaty
• Weather warnings
• Live wildfire map
• Wildfires worldwide