MeteoFrontier · Wildfire and smoke

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Canada now

Map

Shading

On top

Active fires

Smoke at airports

Season summary

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Into spring: overwintered drought

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Fire-occurrence prediction beta

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Fire history 1980–2025

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Flying near fires and smoke

Stay well clear of active fires: air tankers, bird dogs and helicopters work low, often in poor visibility. Forest fire restricted airspace is published by NOTAM: always check the NOTAMs for your route before flight.
Smoke lowers slant-range visibility far more than the surface visibility suggests, and it can drop a VFR route to IFR within an hour as a plume moves in. FU in a METAR is smoke; HZ is haze, often old smoke.
Large fires make their own weather: pyrocumulus and pyroCb bring strong gusty winds, turbulence, lightning and sometimes hail near the fire.

Data and sources

How to use this page · guidance, not an official report or forecast

The map leads. Pick a shading on the right (fire danger, our forecast, fire behaviour, smoke, the fire-occurrence chance, spring drought). Hover (or tap) anywhere for the value.
Fires on top: circles are agency-reported fires, sized by area and coloured by stage of control (red out of control, orange being held, green under control). Small squares are satellite hotspots (brighter = newer). Outlines are fire perimeters.
Click a fire for its detail: size, status, agency, start date and cause where published, a growth chart, the weather and fire codes at the fire for the next days, a spread outlook, the nearest communities and airports, and the smoke downwind.
Time: fire-danger and fire-occurrence layers are daily (valid at local noon, as the FWI system is defined); smoke is hourly. Use the slider or ▶.
In November most of Canada is snow-covered or past the fire season, so danger layers are mostly blank or low. The season summary, fire history and spring drought outlook are the useful parts now; the page is ready for spring.

Fire locations and status come from the fire agencies (via CIFFC / CWFIS, BC Wildfire Service, Alberta Wildfire). Everything computed here (forecast codes, fire behaviour, pyroCb ingredients, growth, occurrence chance) is automated MeteoFrontier guidance. Follow your fire agency, Environment and Climate Change Canada and NOTAMs for decisions.

Words used on this page

See the site glossary.