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Fire Weather & Wildfire Smoke Map

Today's fire danger, red flag warning conditions and a wildfire smoke map for the United States. Fire weather is a simple combination — wind, low humidity and dry fuels — and when all three line up, a spark becomes a running fire within minutes.

Fire danger nowColumbus · 10:01 PM EDT

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Low

Wind gusts 8 mph · humidity 89% · 3 dry days of the last 7

Red flag conditionsNot being met

Air quality42 Good

Smoke indicatorNo smoke signal

Local forecastColumbus →

Wildfire smoke map

NASA GIBS aerosol · NOAA

Highest fire danger right now

0 cities flagged

No cities are meeting elevated fire-weather criteria in our monitored set right now.

What red flag warning means

The National Weather Service issues a red flag warning when sustained wind of about 25 mph or more meets relative humidity at or below roughly 15%, with fuels already dry. A fire weather watch is the same setup one to three days out.

During a warning: no outdoor burning, no parking on dry grass, no equipment that throws sparks, and keep a go-bag by the door. A burn ban usually follows. Official warnings for your area are on the alerts page — this page shows the meteorological conditions behind them.

Wildfire smoke and your air

Smoke from a fire hundreds of miles away can be the bigger health story locally. The particles that matter are PM2.5 — small enough to reach deep into the lungs — and they are what pushes the air quality index into the orange and red bands on days when the sky turns milky and the sun goes copper. As a rule of thumb, once the AQI passes 100 sensitive groups should cut back outdoor exertion, and above 150 everyone should. Closing windows, running a HEPA filter and skipping the run until evening does more good than a cloth mask. Track the number for your own city on the air quality page, and watch the aerosol layer above to see where the plume is heading next.