Arizona Wildfire, Smoke, and Air Quality Map

Fire Season and Landscape

Large fire activity typically peaks May through early July, then the North American monsoon shifts the risk toward lightning starts and flash flooding on fresh burn scars.

The Tonto, Coconino, and Apache-Sitgreaves national forests hold the ponderosa country along the Mogollon Rim, the largest contiguous ponderosa pine forest in the country. The southern sky island ranges add a second, distinct fire environment above the desert floor.

• Arizona's peak fire weeks come before the monsoon, so the season here is offset a month or two from the northern Rockies.
• After the monsoon starts, burn scar flash flooding becomes the sharper hazard; the river gauge layer covers the response of major drainages.
• The fire weather outlook layer flags the dry, windy pre-monsoon days that carry most of the state's large fire growth.