Colorado Wildfire, Smoke, and Air Quality Map
Colorado's fire risk rides on drought and wind more than a fixed calendar, and its worst fires have burned in winter as well as summer. This page tracks the live layers most relevant to Colorado conditions.
Current conditions snapshot
- Wildfires
- 10 active mapped fires attributed to Colorado, about 227,403 acres total. Largest: Aspen Acres (102,003 acres, 72% contained)
- Red flag warnings
- 7 Red Flag Warning zones in or near the Colorado map area.
- Smoke
- Medium smoke over parts of the Colorado map area in the latest NOAA analysis (2026-08-09).
- Fire weather
- An SPC elevated fire weather outlook touches the Colorado map area today.
- Drought
- Parts of the Colorado map area are exceptional drought (D4) on this week's U.S. Drought Monitor.
- Air quality
- Worst AirNow forecast for a Colorado reporting area: Denver-Boulder, AQI 125 (Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups).
- River gauges
- No gauges reporting flood conditions in the Colorado map area.
Data as of Aug 10, 3:20 PM MDT. Sources: NIFC, NWS, NOAA, EPA AirNow, U.S. Drought Monitor. Map areas are rectangular and overlap neighboring states; open the live map for exact locations.
Fire season and landscape
High country fire activity typically runs June through September, but Front Range wind events have produced destructive fires in nearly every month of the year. Drought status is the main indicator of how severe a season is likely to be.
The Arapaho-Roosevelt, White River, Pike-San Isabel, and San Juan national forests span the state's high country, with heavy summer recreation across all four. Smoke from the larger Southwest and northern Rockies fire seasons regularly drifts across the state, showing up first in the air quality forecast layer.
- Front Range wind events can drive fire outside the traditional season; the fire weather outlook layer flags those setups a day ahead.
- The drought layer updates weekly and is the best single explainer of Colorado's year-to-year fire variability.
- River gauges and SNOTEL stations across the high country feed the map's water and snowpack layers for runoff season.
Official Colorado sources
Layer guides for Colorado conditions
Informational only. Not an emergency alert service. Data comes from government sources that can lag, drop, or be wrong at any time. In an emergency call 911 and follow your local authorities. Field Risk Systems is not affiliated with any government agency. See the terms of use and privacy notice.
Nearby states
The Field Conditions map is published by Field Risk Systems LLC, the developer of Field Risk OS™, the operating system for outdoor programs. See Field Risk OS →