Wildfires near Ellicott City, MD

Fires near Ellicott City right now

NASA's VIIRS sensors detected 2 thermal hotspots in 2 separate clusters within 80 km of Ellicott City, Maryland, United States in the last 48 h. The closest is 41 km NW of the city centre (20 km ENE of Frederick), with 1 detection and a peak fire radiative power of 2 MW, which is low-intensity for a single 375 m pixel.

None of the clusters is within 25 km of the centre, so the city itself is not in the immediate fire area, but smoke can travel hundreds of kilometres.

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.

Across United States there are 573 fire clusters in the same window, 1 of them in Maryland.

Smoke and wind

Wind at Ellicott City is from the SSW at 6 km/h (gusts 10 km/h), so smoke near the city drifts toward the NNE. Relative humidity is 46% and the temperature 18°C.

Ellicott City 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 Ellicott City 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.

InciWeb (inciweb.wildfire.gov) lists federal wildfire incidents. Evacuation orders come from county sheriffs and emergency management, often via Genasys Protect (protect.genasys.com) or local alert apps.

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.

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More for this area

• Fires in Maryland
• Fires in United States
• Air quality in Ellicott City
• Weather warnings
• Live wildfire map
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