LIVE · updated

South Dakota Wildfires: Live Fire Map

9
Active fires
9,567
Acres
2
Under 50% contained
18
Air quality · good statewide
Current situation

South Dakota

Normal activity
Large fires (1K+)
2
New fires (48h)
0
Dispatch reports (24h)
0
NWS alerts
0
South Dakota currently has 9 active wildfires burning a combined 9,567 acres. 2 of them are large incidents of 1,000+ acres, all of them at or above 50%. The biggest is the Needles fire in Oglala Lakota County at 6,018 acres, 100% contained.
No fire weather alerts are in effect for the state right now. Air quality is good across all 10 monitoring stations in the state right now (typical AQI 18, peak 32).
New to fire terms?What containment meansRed Flag Warnings explained

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

Evacuation status in South Dakota

South Dakota does not publish a live, zone-level evacuation feed yet, so we cannot confirm evacuation status here either way. During an active fire, check the official emergency links in the resources section below; that is where evacuation notices are posted first.

Is there a fire near me?

Enter any US or Canadian address or town for an instant risk report: nearby fires, wind, smoke, air quality, and evacuation alerts.

This season vs the last decade

162% of an average year
Burned so far in 202659K acres
10-year average (2016–2025, full year)37K acres

So far in 2026, 59K acres have burned in South Dakota, 162% of the 37K acres burned in an average full year from 2016 to 2025.

Active fires in South Dakota

Latest fire updates in South Dakota

Generated automatically from official feeds the moment they change: size, containment, evacuation zones, aircraft, and incident team updates.

  1. Fairpoint Fire · Fire reported 100% contained

    2 days ago · September 23, 2026

  2. Duhamel Fire · Fire reported 100% contained

    2 days ago · September 23, 2026

  3. Needles Fire · Fire reported 100% contained

    6 days ago · September 19, 2026

  4. Needles Fire · Containment rose to 100%

    8 days ago · September 17, 2026

  5. Lookout Fire · Containment rose to 100%

    12 days ago · September 13, 2026

  6. Lookout Fire · Fire reported 100% contained

    12 days ago · September 13, 2026

  7. Gilbert Fire · Mapped size revised down to 211 acres (from 300)

    12 days ago · September 13, 2026

  8. Needles Fire · Containment rose to 90%

    15 days ago · September 10, 2026

  9. Lookout Fire · Containment rose to 71%

    15 days ago · September 10, 2026

  10. Lookout Fire · Containment rose to 29%

    16 days ago · September 9, 2026

  11. Needles Fire · Containment rose to 70%

    16 days ago · September 9, 2026

  12. Van Meter Fire · Fire reported 100% contained

    16 days ago · September 9, 2026

Wildfire history in South Dakota

All reported wildfires since 2014, NIFC interagency records.

2016
Worst year · 89K acres
641
Fires / year · average
8,328
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
89K
44K
'15
'20
'25
'26
Average acres burned by month · 2014–2025
7.3K
3.6K
J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D

July through September account for 34% of the acreage burned in South Dakota in an average year, based on NIFC interagency records.

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: 689 fires2026
Trend analysis

Over the last five years, South Dakota averaged 40K acres burned and 620 fires per year. That is 23% up in acreage and 5% down in fire count versus the 2014–2021 baseline. Fire activity here is clearly intensifying.

Wildfire history near you

How close have major wildfires come to your home in South Dakota? Search any US or Canadian address to see the largest fires on record nearby, with size, year, and impact, on a radius map.

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

Fires near a city in South Dakota

Sioux FallsRapid City

Nearby states

California (200)Texas (112)Oregon (80)New Mexico (77)Oklahoma (62)Montana (59)