Mississippi Wildfire, Smoke, and Air Quality Map

Fire season and landscape

Wildfire activity peaks before spring green-up and returns in drought-year falls, when pine litter and cured grass carry fire well. Mississippi is one of the more active prescribed burning states in the country, and hotspot detections through winter are often planned burns on public and industrial timberland. Hurricane season adds wind, rain, and river flooding to the picture from summer into fall.

The Pine Belt in the south holds the De Soto National Forest, with the Homochitto National Forest near the Mississippi River bluffs and the Bienville National Forest in the state's center; the Holly Springs, Tombigbee, and Delta units round out the state's national forests. Terrain is mostly gentle, so fire behavior follows fuel and weather rather than slope. The Mississippi and Pearl river systems bring seasonal flood risk, and the coastal counties sit squarely in the hurricane belt.

• Dormant-season hotspot detections across the Pine Belt are usually prescribed burns rather than wildfires; the 7-day hotspot layer shows the pattern of a burn program at work.
• Drought-year falls flip that same pine country toward wildfire; the drought layer shows when conditions have crossed over.
• The Pearl and Mississippi rivers drive the state's major flood events; the river gauge layer reports live stages along both.