Missouri Wildfire, Smoke, and Air Quality Map

Fire season and landscape

There are two fire seasons, early spring before green-up and again in late October and November after leaf drop, both driven by cured litter, low humidity, and wind. Severe drought years can push fire activity into summer across the Ozarks. Smoke from distant Canadian and western fires has become a regular midsummer presence in most years.

The Mark Twain National Forest spreads across the southern half of the state in a patchwork of Ozark hills covered in oak-hickory woods and shortleaf pine. North of the Missouri River the land flattens into farm country where field and grass fires dominate. Flooding along the Missouri and Mississippi, and flash flooding in steep Ozark drainages, are the standing water hazards.

• Most Missouri fires are small and short-lived, so many never get a mapped perimeter; the 24-hour satellite hotspot layer catches them anyway.
• The fire weather outlook flags the low-humidity, high-wind days in early spring and late fall when Ozark litter fires make their runs.
• Ozark streams like the Current and the Gasconade rise fast after heavy rain, and the river gauge layer shows the response within hours.