Danger before a fire, evidence after detection
Australia's Fire Danger Rating System describes how dangerous a fire could be if one starts. Its four rating levels communicate potential conditions and corresponding actions; they do not mean a fire is burning in every rated area. The Bureau of Meteorology's fire-weather service explains that fire-weather warnings concern conditions conducive to dangerous bushfire spread. Read a forecast date and fire-weather district before applying a rating to a place.
By contrast, a PocketWorld wildfire marker derived from NASA FIRMS indicates a satellite thermal detection. It does not carry the Australian warning level for that location. A hot pixel may be too imprecise for property-level decisions, and no pixel does not guarantee that no fire exists. The global satellite layer and Australia's nationally consistent rating system are complementary, not competing versions of the same dataset.
Why the local incident feed matters
Bushfire incidents and warnings are issued by state and territory services. For example, VicEmergency publishes Victorian incident and warning information with its own status and update time. It can show local instructions that a worldwide hotspot map cannot. For another state or territory, follow its responsible fire and emergency service rather than assuming a Victorian warning covers the whole country.
Australia's regions and seasons differ. A national danger-colour image should not be treated as a permanent description of a place: the valid day, forecast district and current weather all matter. A satellite pass may occur before or after the local warning changed. When two maps appear inconsistent, note each observation or publication time and the question each map answers.
A practical way to read the layers
Use the PocketWorld fire map to explore thermal detections and the available provider context. Check whether the point belongs to a recent observation or a retained snapshot. Then consult the Bureau for forecast fire weather and the appropriate state or territory agency for active incidents, warning boundaries and recommended actions. If a friend asks about a particular locality, share the official local warning link alongside—not replaced by—the exploratory map.
Do not count hotspot points as separate fires. Several detections can describe the same incident across passes, while cloud and viewing conditions can hide another. A fire danger rating can rise or fall without any new hotspot. Our satellite hotspot guide describes the detection limitations in more detail.
Limits of this guide
This page explains data types; it cannot evaluate a current route, property or evacuation plan. In an emergency, rely on the local emergency authority and its latest messages. PocketWorld is not a warning service, and an empty or stale map must never be read as a safety signal. The methodology describes how source freshness is shown.
Data sources
References are linked beside the explanations above. This evergreen guide does not report current incidents.