Delaware Wildfire, Smoke, and Air Quality Map

Fire season and landscape

The main fire window is early spring, before green-up, when dead marsh grass and crop residue carry fire well; dry falls add a smaller second window. Summer air quality issues are usually driven by transported Canadian wildfire smoke and regional ozone episodes along the I-95 corridor.

Delaware is coastal plain almost end to end, with the state's largest woodlands in Sussex County around Redden State Forest and the Great Cypress Swamp. Tidal marsh lines much of Delaware Bay, and coastal flooding from nor'easters and tropical systems defines the state's hazard profile more than fire does.

• Marsh fires along Delaware Bay put up dramatic smoke columns for their size, and the satellite hotspot layers register them even when no perimeter is ever mapped.
• Delaware's worst air quality days in recent summers have come from Canadian smoke rather than local fire, which the smoke and air quality layers show as it happens.
• Sandy soils in southern Delaware dry out quickly between rains, and the drought layer shows when Sussex County is running drier than the rest of the state.