Alaska fire map

How to read the Alaska map

The map layers government feeds scoped to Alaska, and each is labeled for exactly what it is — no feed is dressed up as more than it measures.

• Active fires (WFIGS). Alaska incident points from the National Interagency Fire Center — the interagency system of record — plus mapped perimeters for the subset of fires that publish one. A fire with no published perimeter shows as a point, never a guessed shape.
• Satellite heat detections (FIRMS). NASA flags thermal anomalies within about a minute of a satellite pass; the Alaska layer is filtered from the national pull. A detection is a hot spot — not a confirmed fire, and not a photograph. A “live satellite fire map” here means heat detections, never imagery.
• Smoke — the grey plumes (HMS). The soft grey areas are NOAA’s Hazard Mapping System smoke analysis: analysts trace smoke plumes once a day from satellite imagery — overhead column smoke, dated, not a ground-level reading. Hover or tap a plume for its analysis date. Smoke drifts across state lines, so this layer isn’t Alaska-only; see the dedicated smoke map, or check ground-level AQI on the air quality map.
• Air quality (AirNow). Ground-monitor AQI lives on the air quality map, shown with its agency credit.

Reading today’s Alaska data

As of 2026-08-27 03:40 UTC, WFIGS shows 6 active wildfires in Alaska covering roughly 49,238 acres (199 km²). The largest is Tatlanika, at 38,420.6 acres (155 km²) and 15 % contained. NASA satellites logged 0 heat detections over Alaska in the last 24 hours — thermal anomalies, not confirmed fires. By size, 0 are 100,000 acres or larger and 3 are under 1,000. Each figure is stamped with the agency time it was last updated.

New fires — last 48 hours

No new large fires reported in Alaska in the last 48 hours.

Source: NIFC WFIGS — retrieved Aug 2026 · discovery time (WFIGS FireDiscoveryDateTime) · data as of 2026-08-27 03:40 UTC

Alaska’s fire season, so far

Right now, 6 wildfires are active across Alaska, and the largest handful dominate the acreage: the top 6 cover about 100% of the active total (a computed share). These are the fires currently on the feed, not a year-to-date total — a fire can sit at the top of the table even at 100% contained, because it stays on the active feed until it ages out and is never marked “extinguished.”

For running season-to-date acreage and incident counts, see wildfire season 2026, built from the same WFIGS system and updated as the year progresses.

For the national historical picture — how many US wildland fires burn and how many acres they take every year since 1983, from the official NIFC record — see US wildfire statistics. It’s the long-run context Alaska’s current fires sit inside.

A verified Alaska-specific all-time ranking (the state’s largest fires in history) needs a state-level historical dataset we’re still verifying — so this page doesn’t publish one rather than show history we can’t yet stand behind. The table above ranks the largest fires active today.

Largest fires of 2026 in Alaska

• Tatlanika 38,420.6 acres (155 km²)
• Mukluk 7,296 acres (30 km²)
• Shaw 3,459.2 acres (14 km²)

Top 3 by acreage on the live WFIGS feed · Source: NIFC WFIGS — retrieved Aug 2026 · data as of 2026-08-27 03:40 UTC. All-time historical rankings await a verified historical source.

Who manages wildfire in Alaska

Responsibility is split between state and federal agencies; this map reads the interagency record they publish. For a specific incident’s official status, evacuation orders, or emergency information, go to the responsible agency — this map is situational awareness, not an emergency service.

• Alaska Division of Forestry & Fire Protection — state lead on wildfire on state, private, and municipal lands.
• BLM Alaska Fire Service — federal wildfire coordination on federal and Native lands in Alaska.
• National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) — interagency coordination; publisher of the WFIGS system of record this map reads.

What you can do with it

• See where fires are in Alaska today. The map and the largest-active-fires table answer it at a glance — statewide, or zoomed to your region.
• Check a specific part of Alaska. Pan to Interior Alaska (the boreal forest between the Alaska and Brooks ranges, where most large fires burn) — the whole state is on one map; there is no separate page to hunt for.
• Find fires near you. Allow location and the map recenters on you; the near-me view is served by your browser, so city-level checks don’t need their own page.
• See if your area is smoky. Cross to the smoke map and the air quality map, or step back to the national wildfire map.

No app to install — it works in any browser, on any device.

Frequently asked questions

What are the grey areas on the Alaska map?

They are wildfire-smoke plumes from NOAA’s Hazard Mapping System (HMS) — a dated, once-daily satellite analysis of where smoke is in the atmosphere. It is smoke aloft, not necessarily at ground level, so a grey area can sit overhead while the air you breathe is clear. Hover or tap a plume for its analysis date. For smoke alone see the smoke map; for ground-level AQI see the air quality map.

Where are the fires in Alaska today?

The live map and the largest-active-fires table at the top of this page show every large wildfire currently on the national feed for Alaska. Zoom to your region to see what is burning right now.

How many wildfires are burning in Alaska right now?

As of 2026-08-27 03:40 UTC, WFIGS reports 6 active Alaska wildfires. That is a count of fires currently on the active feed, not a year-to-date total.

Is there a fire near me in Alaska?

Allow location access and the map recenters on you; the near-me view is served by your browser’s location, so there is no separate page to find. City- and county-level queries are answered by panning and zooming this one map.

Where are the Interior Alaska fires?

Pan the map to Interior Alaska — the boreal forest between the Alaska and Brooks ranges, where most large fires burn. There is no separate Interior Alaska map; the state map shows every active fire.

What are the largest wildfires in Alaska?

The table above ranks the largest fires active today, by reported acreage. An all-time historical ranking needs a verified historical dataset, which we have not finished verifying — so we do not publish one here rather than show unsourced history.

Is this a live Alaska wildfire tracker?

Yes — it reads WFIGS incidents, NASA FIRMS heat detections, and NOAA HMS smoke, each stamped with its own agency time, and runs in any browser with nothing to install.

Where the Alaska data comes from

Every number on this page traces to a primary government feed — WFIGS (NIFC) for incidents, FIRMS (NASA) for heat detections, and HMS (NOAA) for smoke — with the exact source and “data as of” time shown beside it. Missing data is shown as missing, never zero or inferred; totals such as active-fire acreage are labeled as computed sums, not year-to-date figures. Perimeters are published for only a subset of fires; where none exists, the fire shows as a point.

The full source list, licenses, and a live feed-health strip are on the data sources & methodology page.

Source: NIFC WFIGS — retrieved Aug 2026 · Source: NASA FIRMS — retrieved Aug 2026 · data as of 2026-08-27 03:40 UTC