Kansas Fire Danger

Kansas Forest Service wildland fire carries fire danger products, prescribed burning guidance and the county contacts who know the local order, and that is the current answer. Burn bans in Kansas are declared and lifted by county authorities and by Kansas Forest Service, sometimes inside a day, so the status is theirs to publish. This page carries today's National Weather Service fire weather for Kansas, the federal record of what fire looks like here, and the link to that page.

At Kansas Forest Service wildland fire, published by Kansas Forest Service. Link verified 2026-09-02. Even that page may not be the last word: in most states a county, a city or a fire district can be stricter than the state, and on federal land the managing unit issues its own order. If you are within a few miles of a national forest, a park or BLM ground, that unit has a separate order and it is not on the state page.

A Red Flag Warning is a National Weather Service product, not a legal order. NWS describes it this way: "NWS issues a Red Flag Warning, in conjunction with land management agencies, to alert land managers to an ongoing or imminent critical fire weather pattern. NWS issues a Red Flag Warning when fire conditions are ongoing or expected to occur shortly." It is issued for a fire weather zone, and NWS divides Kansas into 105 of them, so one warning usually covers part of the state rather than all of it. Whether burning is prohibited is a separate question decided by Kansas Forest Service and by your county, though many states suspend permits automatically when a warning is out. Kansas Forest Service wildland fire is where that is published.

In NICC's 2025 record for Kansas, 35 of 37 reported fires were human caused and 2 were lightning. The acre split is the more interesting one: 16,188 acres from human starts and 987 from lightning. That makes this one of 30 states where lightning is effectively absent from both columns, which means essentially every fire here was preventable by somebody. Those are NICC's numbers, reported through the interagency Situation Report.

No. NICC's table is fed by the interagency Situation Report, and no Kansas state agency reports into it, so every figure on this page for Kansas describes federal and tribal land only. Kansas is one of five states in that position, alongside Arkansas, Hawaii, Kentucky, South Carolina. Kansas Forest Service keeps the real state totals and they are much larger.

As of the US Drought Monitor map for 2026-08-25, 69.8 percent of Kansas was in D0 abnormally dry conditions or worse, 46 percent in D1 moderate drought or worse and 22.8 percent in D2 severe drought or worse, with a Drought Severity and Coverage Index of 139. Those are the Drought Monitor's categories and its numbers, published weekly, not a fire rating. Drought sets how much fuel is available to burn; the weather on the day sets whether it does.

Kansas Forest Service publishes the state's own answer, and it is usually expressed as a permit season or a restricted burning period rather than as a season in the weather sense. Kansas Forest Service wildland fire carries fire danger products, prescribed burning guidance and the county contacts who know the local order. Nationally the picture is that there is no off season anywhere: NIFC's National Preparedness Level runs on a 1 to 5 scale year round and the National Interagency Coordination Center publishes a significant wildland fire potential outlook every month for the next four months. The month you are least expecting fire is the month most people get caught.

No. The rating that exists is the National Fire Danger Rating System, which NWS describes as "A uniform fire danger rating system used in the United States that focuses on the environmental factors that impact the moisture content of fuels. Fire danger is rated daily over large administrative areas, such as national forests." Kansas Forest Service publishes a daily rating built on it, NWS issues Red Flag Warnings and Fire Weather Watches against fire weather zones, NIFC publishes a national preparedness level, and the Drought Monitor publishes drought categories. Those four are the numbers on this page, and a fifth would only add confusion on a subject where a wrong number burns houses down.

It runs on its own orders. A national forest, a national park, a BLM district and a wildlife refuge each issue their own fire restrictions, and those orders are not on the state page and often differ from it. In practice that means a state page can describe a fairly relaxed picture while a specific ranger district a few miles away is under a stage 2 restriction that prohibits all open flame. If your ground touches federal land, check the managing unit as well as Kansas Forest Service.