Indiana Wildfire, Smoke, and Air Quality Map

Fire season and landscape

Expect two short seasons: late March into April before green-up, and late October into November after leaf drop, both dependent on dry, windy days. Summers rarely produce local wildfire but increasingly bring transported Canadian smoke, which put much of the state under unhealthy air for days in 2023. River flooding on the Wabash, White, and Ohio is the more frequent statewide hazard.

The Hoosier National Forest runs through the hills between Bloomington and the Ohio River, the state's main block of fire-prone terrain. Central and northern Indiana are flat agricultural ground where field and grass fires are the typical fire type. The Wabash and White river systems give the state a long history of spring flooding.

• Southern Indiana litter fires are mostly small and brief, so the 24-hour hotspot layer registers them even when no perimeter is ever drawn.
• The fire weather outlook highlights the handful of spring and fall days each year when low humidity and wind make hill-country fire runs plausible.
• The Wabash can hold above flood stage for weeks in a wet spring, and the river gauge layer shows both the stage and how fast it is changing.