Montana Fire Map: Track Montana Wildfires Live in 2026

A live Montana fire map combines official incident records and perimeters with NASA and NOAA satellite heat detections and National Weather Service fire-weather alerts, so you can follow timber fires in the western mountains and fast grass fires on the eastern plains on one screen.

What does a Montana fire map show right now?

A Montana fire map layers four public feeds over one basemap: official incident records from the National Interagency Fire Center, mapped fire perimeters, satellite thermal detections from NASA's VIIRS and MODIS instruments and NOAA's geostationary GOES analysis, and active National Weather Service fire-weather alerts.

Satellite heat is the fast layer. Polar-orbiting passes cross Montana several times a day and the geostationary analysis fills the gaps, so a fresh thermal signal with no matching incident record often means a new start in country where the nearest road is many miles away.

US Wildfire Tracker fuses all four on its free live fire map and attaches a fire probability tier to each detection, blending whether an official record is linked, how fresh the perimeter is and how recent the heat is. Weak signals below 25 percent stay hidden by default because they often reflect prescribed burns or industrial heat.

When is Montana's wildfire season?

Montana defines its wildfire season in statute. Montana Code Annotated 76-13-102 states that "'Wildfire season' means the period of each year beginning May 1 and ending September 30, inclusive," and a separate section lets the state extend it when dangerous conditions exist.

Large-fire activity concentrates in the second half of that window. The interagency Northern Rockies fire weather operating plan describes peak fire season for southern Montana as "typically June through October," while the Glasgow office issues afternoon planning forecasts during peak season "usually July to September."

Eastern Montana breaks the pattern. The same plan notes that "Northeast Montana has a history of very large fall and spring grass fires, which fall outside the 'normal fire season'," which is why off-season Red Flag criteria exist from mid-November through early April.

The western half of the state follows snowpack. Once the mountain snow is gone and summer dries the timber, lightning starts in the Bitterroot, Flathead and Kootenai country can hold and grow for weeks, and the season does not truly end until autumn rain or snow arrives.

The Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation states its role directly: it exists "to protect lives, property and natural resources from wildfire by providing safe and effective services to Montana's citizens as well as leadership, coordination and resources to the State's wildfire organizations."

Which agencies fight wildfires in Montana?

Wildfire response in Montana is divided by land ownership and by agreement. The Department of Natural Resources and Conservation runs the state program, county cooperative fire protection covers the majority of the acreage through local fire departments, and federal agencies protect federal land.

DNRC publishes the split precisely. It reports direct protection of 5.2 million acres — 3.5 million acres of state and private land plus 1.7 million acres of federal public land — while county cooperative fire protection covers roughly 50 million acres statewide, of which the remaining 45 million acres are protected by a network of 400 fire departments.

Above the agencies sits the Northern Rockies Coordination Center in Missoula. Its published mission is "to provide safe, cost effective mobilization of emergency incident resources and to promote efficient operations through interagency cooperation and standardized procedures," and it moves resources between the fourteen zone dispatch centers in its area.

The Northern Rockies geographic area is defined as covering "the States of Montana, North Dakota, and northern Idaho, Yellowstone National Park, and a small portion of South Dakota." Its listed cooperating agencies include DNRC, Montana Disaster and Emergency Services, the Montana Firewarden's Association and the Montana Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association — which is why an Idaho fire map and a Montana one often show the same incident management teams.

How many wildfires does Montana get a year?

Montana averaged well over two thousand reported wildfires a year across the last five seasons, but acreage swung by a factor of ten between them. The Northern Rockies Coordination Center publishes end-of-year totals for the state by agency and by cause.

Two patterns stand out. People start most Montana fires — roughly two thirds of ignitions in each of those five years — but lightning fires burn a disproportionate share of the acreage, because they start in remote country where initial attack takes longer to arrive.

The second pattern is volatility. The 2021 season burned nearly ten times the acreage of 2025 from a similar number of starts. Fire counts describe workload; acreage describes weather. A map that shows only one of the two will mislead you.

Where do Montana wildfires usually burn?

Montana has two fire regimes divided roughly by the Continental Divide. West of it, timber fires in the Bitterroot, Flathead, Kootenai and Lolo country burn for weeks, produce deep smoke and are fought with crews, aircraft and long fireline. East of it, grass and sagebrush fires on the plains spread with the wind and are measured in hours.

Both regimes matter to residents for different reasons. Western valleys — Missoula, Bitterroot, Flathead — trap smoke under inversions for days. Eastern ranch country faces faster-moving fire with fewer resources close by, which is where the county cooperative network and volunteer departments carry the load.

Yellowstone National Park sits inside the Northern Rockies geographic area as its own listed unit, and fire activity there is reported separately from Montana state and county protection totals.

What are the largest Montana wildfires ever?

Montana's benchmark fire is the Great Fire of 1910, the "Big Blowup" that swept the Northern Rockies in August of that year. The Forest History Society records that official reports counted 1,736 fires burning more than three million acres of private and federal land, and that at least 85 people were killed.

Read that table as a spread of fire types rather than a ranking. Grass fires on the eastern plains dominate the acreage columns, while the timber fires of 2000, 2003 and 2017 caused the evacuations and structure losses. The 2017 season alone left the state with an estimated liability of $74.2 million, according to the Montana Legislative Fiscal Division.

What weather drives Montana fire danger?

Montana's worst fire days combine strong wind, very low relative humidity and fuels already cured by heat and drought. When the National Weather Service expects those to line up, it issues a Red Flag Warning for the affected fire-weather zones.

The NWS defines a Red Flag Warning as an alert issued "in conjunction with land management agencies, to alert land managers to an ongoing or imminent critical fire weather pattern," used when conditions are occurring or expected shortly. A Fire Weather Watch is the earlier stage, meaning critical conditions are "possible but not imminent or occurring."

Four forecast offices split Montana: Missoula for the west, Great Falls for the north-central and Rocky Mountain Front, Billings for the south-central and Glasgow for the northeast. Cold fronts crossing the Divide are a recurring trigger, delivering a wind shift and a humidity crash within the same hour.

Dry lightning is the other driver. A single storm can leave dozens of holdover starts smouldering in timber for days before they show up as heat on a satellite pass, which is one reason the incident count on a map can rise sharply without any new weather.

How do evacuations work in Montana?

Montana does not use numbered evacuation levels. Counties issue an Evacuation Warning and then an Evacuation Order in plain language, and county sheriffs hold the authority to order people out.

Gallatin County Emergency Management explains the reasoning: "Agencies in Gallatin County utilize a two step process... We feel that it is much simpler to have two steps using plain language for the community to understand." A Warning is "notice that they should be ready to leave at a moments notice," and anyone needing extra time should leave on the Warning.

Montana also runs the Ready, Set, Go! preparedness framework alongside those terms. A joint Glacier National Park and Flathead County Sheriff notice maps the two directly, stating that an Evacuation Warning "is equivalent to the 'Set' in the Ready, Set, Go notification system," and reminding residents of the Five P's: people and pets, papers, prescriptions, pictures and personal computer.

Separately, Stage I and Stage II fire restrictions limit campfires, smoking, engine use and off-road driving during dangerous conditions. Those are use restrictions, not evacuations, and Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks warns that violating them can bring fines up to $5,000 for an individual and liability for suppression costs.

How do you read a Montana fire map fast?

Checking Montana fire activity should take under a minute. This sequence works on the live map or in the Chrome side panel, and it puts proximity ahead of headline acreage.

1. Open the map and filter to Montana, or allow location access to see only fires within a set distance in miles of where you are.
2. Read the fire probability tier first. Weak signals below 25 percent are hidden by default because they often reflect prescribed burns or industrial heat.
3. Open the nearest incident and compare three timestamps: last NIFC update, last satellite heat and last GOES heat. Fresh heat under an old perimeter means the fire is still moving.
4. Check whether a Red Flag Warning polygon covers your area, because that changes how fast conditions can deteriorate.
5. Confirm evacuation status with your county sheriff or disaster and emergency services office, then use the directions-away links if you need to move.

Our fire tracker guide explains how each layer is produced, and the current wildfires guide covers how to follow a national picture during a busy Northern Rockies week.

What does wildfire smoke do to Montana air?

Smoke affects far more Montanans than flame does. The state's own Forest Action Plan puts it plainly: "Smoke often becomes trapped in the bowl-shaped valleys that form much of western Montana, and can linger until a weather system moves through."

The burden is measurable. That same plan reports that in the American Lung Association's 2019 annual report Montana was home to six of the 25 US counties most affected by short-term particle pollution: Ravalli, Lewis and Clark, Missoula, Lincoln, Silver Bow and Flathead.

Air quality is reported on the Air Quality Index. The EPA describes it as six color-coded categories, noting that for each pollutant "an AQI value of 100 generally corresponds to an ambient air concentration that equals the level of the short-term national ambient air quality standard for protection of public health."

Smoke does not respect fire perimeters or state lines. Montana routinely receives smoke from Idaho, Washington and British Columbia, which is why a clear local map can coincide with hazardous air. Our smoke tracking guide explains how to read plumes against monitor readings.

Frequently asked questions about the Montana fire map