Ohio Wildfire, Smoke, and Air Quality Map

Fire season and landscape

Fire seasons here are spring (March through May) and fall (October and November), the same leaf-off windows the state's outdoor burning regulations are built around. Summer wildfire is rare, but Canadian smoke has become a near-annual visitor, with June 2023 producing some of the state's worst recorded air quality days. Ohio River and inland flooding are the other recurring hazards.

The Wayne National Forest sits in three units across the southeastern hill country, surrounded by state forests like Shawnee and Zaleski and large tracts of reclaimed mine land. West and north of the Appalachian edge, Ohio flattens into farmland and the lake-plain cities along Erie. The hazard mix is leaf-season fire in the hills, transported smoke, and river flooding.

• Fires in the Wayne National Forest's hill country often appear as isolated hotspots rather than mapped perimeters, so the 7-day hotspot layer gives the better recent history there.
• Ozone and particulate behave differently across Ohio's metro corridor, and the live air quality layer breaks the readings out city by city.
• The Ohio River crests slowly after upstream rain, and gauges at Marietta, Portsmouth, and Cincinnati show the rise days before it peaks locally.