Active fire · 3D satellite

The Big Sur fire, in 3D.

Satellite imagery over real terrain. The Fire Chief's point was that this is burning some of the steepest slopes on the coast — too dangerous to attack head-on, which is why containment moves slowly. On a flat map that is a sentence; here you can see it. Drag to orbit, two fingers to tilt.

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reading the fire feeds

Local reporting

For what is actually happening on the ground, read BigSurKate. She has covered this coast for years and is consistently the fastest and most accurate source on Big Sur fires and Highway 1 — usually well ahead of the official feeds this page reads. This map shows you where; Kate tells you what it means.

For the weather driving this fire, watch Holt Hanley. He is a broadcast meteorologist — you may have seen him on KSBW — studying fire weather, and he streams detailed Timber Fire forecasts explaining the wind, heat and marine layer that decide where it goes next.

Fire perimeter Satellite heat Evacuation order · road closed Evacuation warning Buildings within 7 mi of the fire Buildings further out Fire · ranger · police Fuel Lodging Campground

The perimeter is the newest available: an official NIFC line when one exists, otherwise the most recent CAL FIRE / FIRIS aerial infrared flight, otherwise our own MODIS and VIIRS satellite estimate. A flown heat perimeter is not a containment line — the real fire edge will differ, and unshaded ground is not safe ground. Terrain is exaggerated 1.5× to make the ridges legible. Buildings and the businesses along the coast road come from OpenStreetMap, so you can read the burn against the places people actually know. Buildings within 7 miles of the fire edge are picked out in blue purely so they are findable against the terrain — that colour is not a damage report, a threat ranking or an evacuation boundary. A pin means a place exists there — never that it is open, reachable, evacuated or undamaged. We do not track that; ring ahead. For evacuation orders always follow CAL FIRE and Monterey County alerts, and read BigSurKate for the local picture and Holt Hanley for the fire weather.

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