Illinois Wildfire, Smoke, and Air Quality Map
Illinois is mostly farm ground, so open-country grass and field fires are the norm, with true forest fire limited to the Shawnee Hills at the state's southern tip. This page tracks the live layers most relevant to conditions across the state.
Current conditions snapshot
- Wildfires
- No active mapped fires attributed to Illinois in the national feed right now.
- Red flag warnings
- No Red Flag Warnings in or near the Illinois map area.
- Smoke
- Heavy smoke over parts of the Illinois map area in the latest NOAA analysis (2026-08-09).
- Fire weather
- No elevated SPC fire weather outlook over the Illinois map area today.
- Drought
- Parts of the Illinois map area are moderate drought (D1) on this week's U.S. Drought Monitor.
- Air quality
- Worst AirNow forecast for a Illinois reporting area: Aurora and Elgin, AQI 75 (Moderate).
- River gauges
- 4 gauges at or above flood stage in the Illinois map area (worst: near flood stage).
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
Local fire activity peaks in early spring before green-up and again after harvest, when cured residue and wind line up. Most air quality impacts arrive from elsewhere: in June 2023, Canadian smoke briefly gave Chicago the worst air quality readings of any major city in the world. Flooding on the Illinois and Mississippi rivers rounds out most years.
The Shawnee National Forest caps the far south with sandstone bluffs and oak-hickory hills between the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. Nearly everything north of it is former prairie turned cropland, flat and open, threaded by the Illinois River valley. The hazard profile leans toward smoke transport, river flooding, and summer ozone over the Chicago metro rather than local wildfire.
- A dense plume on the smoke layer over Illinois usually pairs with an empty wildfire layer in-state, because the source is typically burning hundreds of miles upwind.
- Spring field and ditch fires are rarely mapped as perimeters; the 24-hour satellite hotspot layer usually detects them.
- The Illinois River floods slowly and broadly, and gauges at Peoria and Havana track a single crest for days as it works downstream.
Official Illinois sources
Layer guides for Illinois 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 →