Winter wood-burning restrictions
Is today a no-burn day?
In the West's big winter-inversion metros, the air district — not the county fire marshal — decides whether tonight's fire is allowed. When cold, still air traps wood smoke, the district calls a no-burn day and residential wood burning switches off. Different metros say it differently — no burn day, Check Before You Burn, Spare the Air, Don't Light Tonight — but it's the same question, and each card below answers it in the district's own words.
The districts we check around the clock
- Phoenix & Maricopa County No Wood Burning Wood burning is prohibited checked 2 hours ago
- Salt Lake City & the Wasatch Front Voluntary Action Out of season — strictest of 7 areas checked 2 hours ago
- Los Angeles & the South Coast basin Wood Burning Permitted No curtailment called checked 2 hours ago
- The San Joaquin Valley Burning Discouraged Out of season — strictest of 9 areas checked 2 hours ago
- Sacramento County Check Before You Burn begins Nov 1. Out of season checked 2 hours ago
- Seattle & the Puget Sound counties No Air Quality Burn Ban No curtailment called — strictest of 7 areas checked 2 hours ago
A district with no check behind it shows as unverified — we'd rather say so than hand you yesterday's answer.
Districts that post the day's call themselves
These programs are just as real, but the day's answer lives on a phone line, a social feed, or a page a machine can't read without guessing — so their pages here explain the program and point at the district's own channels, and never show a status.
- Denver & the Front Range Action Day indoor burning restrictions
- Albuquerque & Bernalillo County Burn / No-Burn winter woodsmoke program
- Yolo & northeastern Solano counties Don't Light Tonight
- El Dorado County Outdoor burn day / no-burn day status
What a no-burn day actually restricts
A no-burn day is an air-quality call, aimed at fine-particle pollution (PM2.5) from wood smoke. On one, burning wood in a fireplace, wood stove, or outdoor fire pit is prohibited or curtailed for the day — the exact scope, the exemptions (sole source of heat, certified or registered devices, elevation), and the fines are each district's own. The district pages above carry those details with sources.
It is a different animal from a summer burn ban: that one is about fire danger and comes from the county or the land manager. Same word, opposite season — the county side lives here.
No-burn calls flip with the evening forecast — confirm with your air district before you light. What you read here is not permission to burn.
Burning cleaner on the days you can
Dry, seasoned wood smokes less and heats more — the firewood BTU chart has the numbers by species, and the best-firewood guide covers what never to burn at all.