2026 Kansas Wildfires
Largest wildfires in Kansas this season
All 2026 Kansas Fires · 4 fires
A fire is listed here when it is located in Kansas. Each complex is counted once, through its parent: the parent carries the complex's acres, and its member fires are listed beneath it without being counted again. A fire that crossed the border is listed with the acres that burned in Kansas, not its whole reported size. A fire located elsewhere that burned into Kansas is listed too, at its Kansas acres, and is not added to the Kansas fire counts.
| Fire | County | Start date | Containment | Status | Acres | Center | Ignition point |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Kansas Wildfire Outbreak | Meade | May 18, 2026 | 0% | Inactive | 127,840 | 37.1650, -100.3740 | — |
| 51 Fire | Morton | May 14, 2026 | 95% | Inactive | 14,173 | 37.2049, -101.6544 | 37.1200, -101.6321 |
| Rice Fire | Rice | Mar 27, 2026 | — | Inactive | 483 | 38.2093, -98.4673 | 38.2208, -98.4593 |
| J Rd 2 Fire | Jackson | Mar 21, 2026 | — | Inactive | 20 | 39.3709, -95.8595 | 39.3688, -95.8607 |
| Totals | 2026 Season Fires 4 | Active Fires 0 | Acres Burning 0 | 2026 Season Acres 142,516 |
Land cover · Kansas 2026
Burned acres in Kansas for the 2026 season, split by the kind of land that burned. Each figure counts the LANDFIRE 30 m cells inside a fire's latest mapped perimeter. The Fires tab carries the reported season acreage.
Forest ownership · Kansas 2026
Burned forest acres in Kansas for the 2026 season, split by who owns the land. Owners are mapped for forestland, so every figure here counts burned cells whose LANDFIRE lifeform is Tree. The Fires tab carries the season acreage this site reports.
Burn severity · Kansas 2026
Burned acres in Kansas for the 2026 season, split by how severely each cell of ground burned. Each figure counts the 30 m cells inside a fire's latest mapped perimeter, measured from satellite imagery. The Fires tab carries the reported season acreage.
Severity comes from the differenced normalized burn ratio (dNBR), the same index the federal burn severity programs publish, classified with the standard thresholds.
This is an initial assessment. Trees keep dying for months after a burn, so severity in forest reads conservative until the official assessments arrive after the season.