Oregon Live Wildfire Map: Fires, Evacuation Levels and Smoke

For a live map of wildfires in Oregon, open a satellite fire map of the state, such as GodsView's wildfires in Oregon page, then confirm named fires on the State of Oregon fires dashboard at wildfire.oregon.gov, the Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF) and InciWeb. For evacuations, follow your county sheriff and sign up for ORAlert. The satellite map shows where heat is right now. The official sources tell you what it is, how big it is and whether you need to move.

This guide explains how to read an Oregon fire map, who fights which fires, how fire season and public use restrictions work, what Oregon's three evacuation levels mean, what the 2020 Labor Day fires changed, and how to check smoke and air quality.

See fires in Oregon now

Where to see Oregon wildfires right now

Use two kinds of map together.

A satellite fire map shows every heat detection from NASA's VIIRS instruments, usually within a few hours of a satellite pass. It covers the whole state at once, including remote country where nobody has reported a fire yet. GodsView's Oregon page groups detections from the last 24 to 48 hours into fire clusters, lists each one with detections, peak fire radiative power and first and last seen times, and lists every Oregon city with a fire within 80 km. The older Oregon fire desk page now points to the same live data.

An official incident map shows named fires, their perimeters, acres and containment. In Oregon the main ones are:

• wildfire.oregon.gov, the state's wildfire site, which includes the State of Oregon Fires Dashboard, evacuation information, air quality and road conditions (Oregon wildfire response).
• ODF's fire pages and blogs, for fires on the land ODF protects, including district blogs for southwest and central Oregon (ODF).
• InciWeb, for larger fires managed by federal teams on national forests and Bureau of Land Management land.

City pages are the quickest check when you see smoke: wildfires near Bend, Medford, Eugene, Portland, Grants Pass, Klamath Falls and Corvallis. Each shows the nearest detected fire, its distance and direction from the city centre, and the current wind, so you can see which way smoke is drifting.

How to read a satellite fire map of Oregon

A few rules make the map much easier to read.

1. A dot is a hot pixel, not a perimeter. Each VIIRS detection is a 375 m pixel that was hotter than its surroundings. A large fire shows as many dots along its active edges. The burned-out middle often shows nothing.
2. The map is only as new as the last pass. Satellites cross Oregon about twice a day. A fire that started after the last pass will not be there, and heavy smoke or cloud can hide one.
3. Not every dot is a wildfire. Prescribed burns, slash pile burns after logging and industrial heat can all show up. Before assuming a small detection is a wildfire, check whether there is a named incident nearby.
4. Watch how a cluster changes. A cluster that grows across several passes and has high fire radiative power is active. A single low-intensity detection that is gone on the next pass usually isn't.

Our NASA FIRMS explainer covers pixel size, fire radiative power and data delay in more depth.

Using the map on a smoky day

Say you wake up in Bend to an orange sky and the smell of smoke. Here is a quick routine that works.

1. Open your city page. It tells you whether any satellite-detected fire is within 80 km, and if not, where the nearest one is, up to 600 km away. Smoke often comes from much further away than people expect.
2. Look at the wind line. The page shows the current wind direction, speed, gusts and humidity at the city, and which way smoke near the city is drifting. Dry air and strong gusts are the conditions in which fires grow fastest.
3. Open the state page. If the nearest fire is far away, the Oregon page shows every cluster in the state, so you can see whether there is one large fire or several smaller ones upwind.
4. Match the cluster to a named fire. Use the State of Oregon fires dashboard, ODF or InciWeb to find its name, size and containment.
5. Check your evacuation level and the air. Your county's evacuation level is what decides whether you leave. The AQI decides whether you open the windows.

This takes a few minutes and answers the two questions that matter: am I in danger, and is the air safe to breathe.

Who fights fires in Oregon

Oregon land is split between owners, and so is firefighting. That is why one fire can have updates from three different agencies.

ODF says its fire protection program protects 16 million acres of forest, a $60 billion asset. To report a wildfire, call 911.

Oregon's fire season and public use restrictions

Oregon does not have one fixed fire season. The State Forester declares fire season at the local level when conditions mean fires can start and spread from lightning or people. ODF notes that southern Oregon usually declares earlier than northwest Oregon.

Once fire season is on in a district, public use restrictions can apply to:

• debris burning
• campfires
• off-road driving
• chainsaw use
• fireworks
• mowing dry grass

The rules change by district and get tighter as the season goes on. Check beforeyouburn.net before burning anything, and look up your local ODF district's current restrictions before a camping trip or a weekend of yard work. The restrictions cover chainsaws and mowers because sparks from equipment can ignite dry grass.

Oregon evacuation levels: Ready, Set, Go

Oregon uses three evacuation levels. They come from your county sheriff or emergency manager, not from the fire map. The Oregon Department of Emergency Management defines them as:

A few practical points:

• Levels can skip. A fast fire can go straight to Level 3. Don't wait for Level 2 before you pack.
• Know your evacuation routes. OEM recommends memorising more than one route and keeping a printed map, because cell service can fail in a big fire. Check TripCheck.com or call 511 for road closures.
• Levels go down too. When the danger eases, an area may move from Level 3 back to Level 2 or 1. Wait for the official word before going home.

Sign up for ORAlert before you need it

Oregon's local alert systems are reached through ORAlert.gov, where you sign up by ZIP code. OEM also asks people to make sure Wireless Emergency Alerts are turned on in their phone settings and to update their contact details if they registered years ago. Sign up for every county you care about: where you live, where you work and where your parents live.

GodsView can add a second layer. On My places you can add a town, and GodsView watches 50 km around it for wildfire alerts and satellite fire hotspots, plus earthquakes, severe weather and unhealthy air. Checking a place is free; saving it and receiving alerts needs a paid plan. Our guide to disaster alerts near home explains how it works. GodsView does not send evacuation orders, so it doesn't replace ORAlert.

What the 2020 Labor Day fires changed

On the afternoon of Monday, September 7, 2020, strong east to northeast winds hit drought-dry forests across western Oregon. ODF recorded sustained winds of 20 to 30 mph with gusts up to 50 to 60 mph, and peak gusts over 100 mph at Timberline Lodge on Mount Hood (ODF fact sheet). Five fires grew past 100,000 acres each over the next three days:

Together those five burned nearly 850,000 acres. Across the Cascade and Coast ranges the Labor Day fires burned more than a million acres, took 11 lives and put nearly 500,000 people under evacuation notices, according to the Oregon State Fire Marshal. ODF says more than 4,000 homes were destroyed during the 2020 season.

The lesson for anyone reading a fire map is about speed. Under those winds, fires moved many miles in hours, much faster than a satellite passing twice a day can follow. A satellite map would have shown the fires, but not fast enough to time an evacuation. That is why alerts, evacuation levels and a ready go-kit matter more than any map.

Smoke and air quality

In a bad Oregon fire season, most people are affected by smoke rather than flames. Smoke from fires in the Cascades and southern Oregon can settle into the Willamette Valley, the Rogue Valley and central Oregon for days.

Where to check:

• Oregon DEQ's Air Quality Index shows readings from monitors around the state, and DEQ has a free Oregon Air app (DEQ).
• OregonSmoke.org, the Oregon smoke blog, has a fire and air quality map with temporary monitors near fires and daily smoke forecasts (Oregon Smoke Information).
• GodsView city air pages, such as air quality in Portland and Medford, and the live wildfire map, where you can see fires and air quality together.

Our guide to what air quality index is bad explains the AQI colour bands. When smoke is heavy, keep windows and doors closed, run a HEPA filter if you have one, and limit outdoor activity, especially for children, older adults, pregnant people and anyone with heart or lung conditions.

A quick Oregon fire checklist

• See smoke or flames nobody has reported? Call 911.
• Want to know what is burning? Satellite fire map, then wildfire.oregon.gov, ODF or InciWeb.
• Want to know whether to leave? Your county's evacuation level, through ORAlert and the sheriff.
• Planning to burn, camp or cut wood? Check your ODF district's restrictions and beforeyouburn.net.
• Smoke in the air? DEQ's AQI, OregonSmoke.org or your city's air quality page.

If you're checking a fire somewhere else, our guides to checking for a fire near you and the Georgia wildfire map cover California, Arizona and the Southeast.