How to see active wildfires on the map
Wildfire season and RV season overlap almost perfectly. The Wildfires layer shows active fire incidents and mapped fire perimeters on the map, so you can spot trouble near a campground or along a route before you drive into it.
Turn on the layer
Open the Layers menu in the top-right corner of the Explore map (or the trip map in the planner) and toggle on Wildfires. You'll see:
- Flame markers — active fire incidents. Nearby fires group into a red count bubble; zoom in to separate them.
- Red shaded areas — mapped fire perimeters, where crews or satellites have outlined the burn area.
Click a flame or a shaded perimeter for the fire's details: its name, size in acres, containment percentage, and when it was discovered and last updated.
Where the data comes from
- United States — the National Interagency Fire Center's WFIGS feed, the same interagency data behind most official US fire maps. It refreshes upstream every 5–15 minutes.
- Canada — Natural Resources Canada's Canadian Wildland Fire Information System (CWFIS), including satellite-estimated fire areas where agency-mapped perimeters aren't available yet.
Small incidents under about 5 acres are filtered out — they're mostly false alarms and controlled burns that would bury the fires that matter.
Know before you go
Fire conditions change fast, and mapped data always lags the ground truth. The layer is for awareness, not clearance — before traveling near an active fire, check local authorities, road closures, and campground operators directly. Prescribed (planned) burns appear in the details as "Prescribed fire"; they're intentional and managed, but can still mean smoke on the road.