Virginia Wildfire, Smoke, and Air Quality Map

Fire season and landscape

Virginia runs a spring fire season from late winter through April, when the state restricts morning open burning, and a second season in fall as the hardwoods drop their leaves. Drought-year falls in the western mountains produce the larger fires. Remnants of tropical systems are a recurring flood driver from late summer into fall, particularly along the mountain front.

The George Washington and Jefferson National Forests run nearly the length of Virginia's western mountains, ridge-and-valley terrain where leaf-off fires move quickly on south-facing slopes. Shenandoah National Park caps the northern Blue Ridge above the valley farms. East of the mountains the state rolls through piedmont to tidewater, where hurricanes and nor'easters drive coastal flooding.

• Spring fires in the Blue Ridge and Alleghenies follow dry, windy afternoons; the fire weather outlook layer shows the days that pattern sets up.
• Leaf-off fires on the George Washington and Jefferson national forests often appear as hotspot strings along ridgelines; the 24-hour layer is the freshest signal.
• Remnant tropical rain comes out of the mountains fast on the James and the Shenandoah; the river gauge layer carries the live stages.