South Carolina Wildfire, Smoke, and Air Quality Map
South Carolina's fire landscape tilts toward the coastal plain, where sandhill and Lowcountry pine burn readily in dry, windy stretches of late winter and spring. This page tracks the live layers most relevant to conditions across the state.
Current conditions snapshot
- Wildfires
- 1 active mapped fire attributed to South Carolina, about 1,012 acres total. Largest: Horse Island (1,012 acres, 100% contained)
- Red flag warnings
- No Red Flag Warnings in or near the South Carolina map area.
- Smoke
- Light smoke over parts of the South Carolina map area in the latest NOAA analysis (2026-08-09).
- Fire weather
- No elevated SPC fire weather outlook over the South Carolina map area today.
- Drought
- Parts of the South Carolina map area are exceptional drought (D4) on this week's U.S. Drought Monitor.
- Air quality
- Worst AirNow forecast for a South Carolina reporting area: Greenville-Spartanburg, AQI 39 (Good).
- River gauges
- 1 gauge at or above flood stage in the South Carolina map area (worst: near flood stage).
Data as of Aug 10, 3:20 PM MDT. Sources: NIFC, NWS, NOAA, EPA AirNow, U.S. Drought Monitor. Map areas are rectangular and overlap neighboring states; open the live map for exact locations.
Fire season and landscape
Fire activity concentrates in late winter and spring, when cold fronts bring wind and low humidity across cured fuels. Prescribed burning is a fixture of the state's pine landscape through the dormant season, and many hotspot detections are planned burns. Fall drought years extend the season, and June through November layers hurricane wind and flooding on top.
The Sumter National Forest covers the state's piedmont and Blue Ridge corner in three units, while the Francis Marion National Forest spreads across the Lowcountry north of Charleston. Between them run the sandhills, a fire-adapted band of longleaf and scrub oak through the state's middle. The Pee Dee, Santee, and Savannah basins carry the flood risk, and the coast faces hurricane impacts in season.
- Dormant-season hotspots across the Francis Marion National Forest and the sandhills are mostly prescribed burns; the 24-hour layer shows what is actively putting up heat.
- Post-frontal northwest wind days drive the state's fastest fire spread; the red flag warning layer marks the zones under warning.
- The Pee Dee and Santee systems can crest weeks after a hurricane's rain falls upstream; the river gauge layer tracks the slow-moving flood wave.
Official South Carolina sources
Layer guides for South Carolina conditions
Informational only. Not an emergency alert service. Data comes from government sources that can lag, drop, or be wrong at any time. In an emergency call 911 and follow your local authorities. Field Risk Systems is not affiliated with any government agency. See the terms of use and privacy notice.
Nearby states
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