Alabama Wildfire, Smoke, and Air Quality Map

Fire season and landscape

Alabama's fire year peaks twice, in the dormant late winter and spring and again in fall when drought settles over the state. Prescribed fire is heavily used across the state's pine country, including longleaf restoration in the Conecuh National Forest, so cool-season hotspots frequently mark planned burns. Drought-year falls have carried significant wildfire into the ridges of the Talladega National Forest.

The Talladega National Forest climbs to the state's highest ground at Cheaha, while the Bankhead National Forest covers canyon-cut plateau country in the northwest and the Conecuh National Forest holds longleaf flatwoods near the Florida line. Between them runs a mix of industrial pine, hardwood ridges, and river bottoms. The Alabama, Tombigbee, and Tennessee river systems carry the state's flood risk, and the Gulf coast sees hurricane impacts in many years.

• Longleaf restoration burns in the Conecuh National Forest and across south Alabama show up as regular winter hotspots; the satellite layers record them alongside wildfires.
• Red flag conditions in Alabama typically follow dry cold fronts with gusty northwest wind; the red flag warning layer maps active warnings by forecast zone.
• Fall drought is what turns the ridges of the Talladega and Bankhead national forests into wildfire terrain; the drought layer shows how deep a given fall has gone.