⚡ North America Lightning-Ignition Wildfire Risk — prototype

⚠ Prototype heuristic, not a validated fire-science model. Risk scoring is a transparent rule-of-thumb (storm type + active fire-weather danger + fuel class + strike/point age + real ground-sensor lightning density + real NDFD relative humidity + real NIDIS flash-drought change + real NOAA GOES/NGFS satellite hotspot detection + real NIFC new-fire-start data), not a calibrated ignition-probability model. Individual strike points are seeded as a proxy inside — or within ~10 miles of — real NWS storm warnings (cloud-to-ground lightning is well documented to strike well outside a storm's radar-detected severe core, a "bolt from the blue"; points seeded in that buffer zone are marked with a dashed outline and a small score penalty) unless a real feed is supplied above — but each is checked against genuine NWS/NLDN+GLD360 measured lightning density, real NWS humidity forecast data, NOAA/NIDIS's weekly U.S. Drought Monitor category-change data (the standard flash-drought signal), real-time NOAA GOES satellite fire detections (NGFS, filtered to exclude volcanoes/industrial heat sources), and NIFC's nationwide "new starts" feed (official incidents discovered in the last 24 hours). MRMS precipitation, EDDI, NIFC fire perimeters, and NIFC current-incident reports are shown for visual reference only and are not scored (no public pixel-query access for MRMS/EDDI; NIFC data is ground truth about existing fires, not a predictive risk input — incident layers are filtered to actual wildfires, excluding prescribed burns). NASA VIIRS fire hotspots (375m, via GIBS) are also visual only — GIBS explicitly disables point queries server-side — but offer much finer resolution than GOES/NGFS at the cost of only a few satellite passes per day rather than continuous coverage. InciWeb's official incident updates are shown for reference too — real public-information narrative text and a link to the full incident page, but sparser than WFIGS (only "significant" incidents get an InciWeb page) and its "active" flag can linger after an incident is effectively closed out, so treat it as a place to read more, not a live status indicator. Always cross-check with state forestry/dispatch and official NWS/USFS predictive-services products before committing field resources.

⚠ Not affiliated with or endorsed by any data provider. This is an independent, volunteer-built prototype. It is not officially affiliated with, and not endorsed by, NOAA, NWS, NASA, NIFC, InciWeb, the U.S. Forest Service, USGS, or Natural Resources Canada / the Canadian Forest Service — it simply displays their public data. Canadian data (CWFIS) is used under the Open Government Licence – Canada, which itself states that it grants no right to use the information in a way that suggests official status or provider endorsement.