Kansas Wildfire, Smoke, and Air Quality Map

Fire season and landscape

Wildfire risk peaks from late winter through April, when cured grass meets strong frontal winds; the 2016 Anderson Creek and 2017 Starbuck fires, among the largest in state history, both burned in March. Flint Hills prescribed burning peaks in the same window and puts smoke over Wichita, Topeka, and Kansas City on heavy burn days.

The Cimarron National Grassland in the far southwest and the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve in the Flint Hills bookend a state that is otherwise mostly private rangeland and cropland. The hazard profile is wind-driven grass fire in the west and the south-central Red Hills, plus dense seasonal smoke in the east from planned burning.

• In April, smoke over eastern Kansas usually means Flint Hills prescribed burning rather than wildfire, and the air quality forecast layer shows where it is headed.
• Wind-driven grass fires like 2017's Starbuck Fire can cross county lines in a day, so the 24-hour hotspot layer is the faster signal in western Kansas.
• Red flag warnings ahead of dry cold fronts mark the days when both major wildfires and escaped burns have historically occurred.