Wildfires near Tuscaloosa, AL

Fires near Tuscaloosa right now

NASA's VIIRS sensors detected 34 thermal hotspots in 4 separate clusters within 80 km of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States in the last 48 h. The closest is 5 km ENE of the city centre (6 km ENE of Tuscaloosa), with 7 detections and a peak fire radiative power of 2 MW, which is low-intensity for a single 375 m pixel.

1 cluster is 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 70 km E (5 km SSE of Alabaster) with 13 detections; first seen Sat 1 am and last seen Sun 3 am local time.

Across United States there are 504 fire clusters in the same window, 25 of them in Alabama.

Smoke and wind

Wind at Tuscaloosa is from the ENE at 13 km/h (gusts 17 km/h), so smoke near the city drifts toward the WSW. Relative humidity is 45% and the temperature 22°C.

Tuscaloosa 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 Tuscaloosa 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 Alabama
• Fires in United States
• Air quality in Tuscaloosa
• Weather warnings
• Live wildfire map
• Wildfires worldwide