California fire map

How to read the California map

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

• Active fires (WFIGS). California 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 California 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 California-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 California data

As of 2026-08-27 13:02 UTC, WFIGS shows 76 active wildfires in California covering roughly 133,110 acres (539 km²). The largest is Bug, at 93,733 acres (379 km²) and 97 % contained. NASA satellites logged 318 heat detections over California in the last 24 hours — thermal anomalies, not confirmed fires. By size, 0 are 100,000 acres or larger and 26 are under 1,000. Each figure is stamped with the agency time it was last updated.

New fires — last 48 hours

• Plaskett — discovered 2026-08-26, 100 acres (0 km²) (today)

Source: NIFC WFIGS — retrieved Aug 2026 · discovery time (WFIGS FireDiscoveryDateTime) · data as of 2026-08-27 13:02 UTC

California’s fire season, so far

Right now, 76 wildfires are active across California, and the largest handful dominate the acreage: the top 8 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 California’s current fires sit inside.

A verified California-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 California

• Bug 93,733 acres (379 km²)
• Timber 18,994 acres (77 km²)
• Gann 10,339 acres (42 km²)
• Mp18 7,601 acres (31 km²)
• Buzzard 902 acres (4 km²)
• Loomis 656 acres (3 km²)
• 4-1 230 acres (1 km²)
• Chute 162 acres (1 km²)
• Alper 105 acres (0 km²)
• Plaskett 100 acres (0 km²)

Top 10 by acreage on the live WFIGS feed · Source: NIFC WFIGS — retrieved Aug 2026 · data as of 2026-08-27 13:02 UTC. All-time historical rankings await a verified historical source.

Who manages wildfire in California

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.

• CAL FIRE — California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection — state lead on State Responsibility Area lands.
• USDA Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Region — federal lead on national forest lands in California.
• 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 California 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 California. Pan to Northern California (the Bay Area, the Shasta-Trinity, and the northern forests) or Southern California (the ranges and foothills of the south) — 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 California 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 California 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 California. Zoom to your region to see what is burning right now.

How many wildfires are burning in California right now?

As of 2026-08-27 13:02 UTC, WFIGS reports 76 active California 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 California?

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 Northern California fires?

Pan the map to Northern California — the Bay Area, the Shasta-Trinity, and the northern forests. There is no separate Northern California map; the state map shows every active fire.

What are the largest wildfires in California?

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 California 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 California 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 13:02 UTC