LIVE · updated

South Dakota Wildfires: Live Fire Map

10
Active fires
11K
Acres
1
Under 50% contained
61
Air quality · Moderate
Current situation

South Dakota

Normal activity
Large fires (1K+)
1
New fires (48h)
7
NWS alerts
0

South Dakota currently has 10 active wildfires burning a combined 11,476 acres. One of them is a large incident of 1,000+ acres, all of them at or above 50%. The biggest is the Potato Creek fire in Jackson County at 10,944 acres, 100% contained. 7 new fires have been discovered in the past 48 hours. No fire weather alerts are in effect for the state right now. Air quality near the center of the state is moderate (AQI 61).

New to fire terms?What containment meansRed Flag Warnings explained

Bold outline: South Dakota boundary. Fires outside the border are in neighboring states.

This season vs the last decade

130% of an average year
Burned so far in 202648K acres
10-year average (2016–2025, full year)37K acres

So far in 2026, 48K acres have burned in South Dakota, 130% of the 37K acres burned in an average full year from 2016 to 2025.

Active fires in South Dakota

Wildfire history in South Dakota

All reported wildfires since 2014, NIFC interagency records.

2016
Worst year · 89K acres
632
Fires / year · average
8,216
Total fires · since 2014
Human & property impact, 1999-2020
272
Structures destroyed
6
Lives lost
$99.1M
Reported cost

From 206 fires with federal ICS-209 reports. Source: ICS-209-PLUS (St. Denis et al.).

Acres burned by year
'15
'20
'25
'26
Fires recorded by year
4829632014: 367 fires20142015: 636 fires2016: 873 fires20162017: 963 fires2018: 376 fires20182019: 224 fires2020: 875 fires20202021: 916 fires2022: 740 fires20222023: 318 fires2024: 702 fires20242025: 649 fires2026: 577 fires2026
Trend analysis

Over the last five years, South Dakota averaged 38K acres burned and 597 fires per year. That is 16% up in acreage and 9% down in fire count versus the 2014–2021 baseline. Fire activity here is clearly intensifying.

Largest fires on record in South Dakota

  • Jasper20004 structures destroyed83,500 acres
  • Legion Lake20173 structures destroyed54,023 acres
  • Longhorn Complex20124 structures destroyed43,639 acres
  • Cottonwood CA20162 structures destroyed41,360 acres
  • Elk Mountain Complex200126,770 acres

Emergency resources for South Dakota

Official channels for evacuation orders, shelters, and emergency alerts. In an immediate emergency, call 911.

Red Cross open shelter mapSheltersLive map of currently open emergency shelters nationwide.redcross.orgInciWeb incident informationEvacuationsOfficial updates, closures, and evacuation notices for federal wildfires.inciweb.wildfire.govDisasterAssistance.govFire infoFEMA assistance programs if you are affected by a declared disaster.disasterassistance.govState emergency management directoryAlertsUSA.gov directory of every state emergency management agency.usa.gov

Fires near a city in South Dakota

Sioux FallsRapid City

Nearby states

California (108)Oregon (94)Washington (38)Montana (27)Arizona (22)New Mexico (22)