Bushfires near Sydney, NSW

Fires near Sydney right now

NASA's VIIRS sensors detected 13 thermal hotspots in 4 separate clusters within 80 km of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia in the last 48 h. The closest is 29 km SW of the city centre (15 km SSE of Liverpool), with 1 detection and a peak fire radiative power of 1 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.

The largest nearby cluster by detections is 72 km SSW (4 km SSW of Wollongong) with 9 detections; first seen Sat 3 pm and last seen Sun 2 am local time.

Across Australia there are 313 fire clusters in the same window, 16 of them in New South Wales.

Smoke and wind

Wind at Sydney is from the S at 19 km/h (gusts 44 km/h), so smoke near the city drifts toward the N. Relative humidity is 79% and the temperature 18°C.

Sydney is roughly downwind of the nearest fire, so smoke and haze are likely; check the air quality page before spending time outdoors.

Smoke shows up first as PM2.5 on air-quality monitors; the Sydney 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.

Bushfire warnings in Australia are issued by state services; here that is NSW Rural Fire Service (rfs.nsw.gov.au, Hazards Near Me app). Follow the Australian Warning System levels (Advice, Watch and Act, Emergency Warning).

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 Liverpool, NSW
• Wildfires near Wollongong
• Wildfires near Newcastle
• Wildfires near Maitland
• Wildfires near Central Coast
• Wildfires near Orange, NSW
• Wildfires near Canberra
• Wildfires near Port Macquarie

More for this area

• Fires in New South Wales
• Fires in Australia
• Air quality in Sydney
• Weather warnings
• Live wildfire map
• Wildfires worldwide