America's burning: Dazzling new map of U.S. wildfires over the past decade reveals rising menace


A comprehensive, eye-catching map compiled from data provided by two NASA satellites plots more than a decade's worth of the massive wildfires that have hit the United States, painting an unsettling portrait of an increasingly common threat. Set against a stark black background, the map shows not only where fires have raged between 2001 and July 2012, but also their intensity. The purplish dots on the map indicate the smallest conflagrations, while bright-yellow streaks mark the sites of the biggest blazes. John Nelson, the map’s maker and the user experience and mapping manager for IDV Solutions, a Lansing, Michigan, data-visualization company, said the devastating images of the Colorado Springs’ recent wildfires got him thinking about the history and reach of dangerous blazes. Source: The Coming Crisis