October: 36 of 50 states have mild camping weather
Camping by State: Best Months, Booking Windows and Campfire Rules
When camping weather is mild in every state, how far ahead state park sites book, and each state’s campfire rule, quoted from the agency page it came from, with a live weekend forecast for your campsite.
This weekend
Check this weekend’s weather at your campsite
Live from the National Weather Service
When to go
How many states are mild each month
A month counts as mild in a state when the average high is 60 to 85 F and the average low is 40 F or more, across NOAA’s 150 reference stations (1991 to 2020 normals). Open a state for its own months and stations.
Jan4 states
Feb8 states
Mar13 states
Apr30 states
May45 states
Jun30 states
Jul18 states
Aug24 states
Sep38 states
Oct36 states
Nov12 states
Dec8 states
45 states
Mild in May
The most of any month, by NOAA normals
34 states
With a verified booking window
of the 50
13 months
Longest advance booking
Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina
39 states
With a named burn ban source
Linked on the campfire pages
Rising Sun Campground, Glacier National Park. “Rising Sun Campground” — GlacierNPS — Public domain
Booking windows are the longest advance booking the state agency’s own page states. Where a cell says see the state page, the window is on that state’s booking site.
Campfires
Campfire rules and burn bans
Every state has its own campfire rule and its own place burn bans are posted. The campfire rules pages quote each one and show any red flag warning the National Weather Service has out for the state right now.
It depends on the state. By NOAA's 1991 to 2020 normals, May is mild (an average high of 60 to 85 F with lows of 40 F or more) in the most states, 45 of 50. The state pages give each state's own months.
It varies by state. Among the 34 states whose agency page states a window, the longest is thirteen months (Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina). Popular parks fill on the first day a date opens, so read your state's page.
It depends on where you camp. Developed campgrounds usually allow fires in the provided rings, while many states and forests require a permit for a fire outside one, and every agency can ban fires when conditions are dry. The campfire rules pages quote each state.
The state forestry or fire agency usually posts statewide restrictions, a county can order its own, and each national forest posts its fire restrictions. The campfire rules pages link the state source and show live National Weather Service red flag alerts.
On most national forest land it is, for a limited number of days at a site. The rules are federal or state specific. This page found a stated rule for 31 states and quotes it on each state page.
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Camping in every state
Where this page’s facts come from
State park, forestry and federal land pages (read October 18, 2026). Booking windows, reservation systems, campfire rules, fire restriction sources and rules for camping outside a campground, each quoted word for word with a link to the page it came from.
NOAA NCEI U.S. Climate Normals 1991 to 2020 (read October 18, 2026). Average monthly high, low and nights at or below 32 F at 150 reference stations, the same stations the heat season and heating season pages use.
National Weather Service alerts (live, read in your browser when the page loads). Red Flag Warnings, Fire Weather Watches, Fire Warnings, Freeze Warnings and High Wind Warnings, read live from api.weather.gov.
National Weather Service 7 day forecast (live, read in your browser when the page loads). The weekend forecast for the ZIP code a visitor enters, read live from api.weather.gov.
