No longer in the daily fire updates. The Howerdton Fire last appeared in an official report on September 19, 2026, at 20 acres with containment not reported. Fires drop off this list once crews have them contained or out; we keep the page for reference. See fires burning now →

Howerdton Fire

Jackson County, Illinois · Wildfire

No longer active Official numbers updated Sep 19, 2026 (about 2 hours ago)
First reported today
Metric Now
Size
20 acres
Sep 19, 5:00 PM
Containment —
Crew size —
Money spent —

Howerdton Fire and other nearby fires

🔥 Where this fire started Mostly contained Partly contained Containment not reported

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Howerdton Fire summary

The Howerdton Fire is a wildfire near Jackson County, Illinois. It has burned about 20 acres (about 15 football fields). It's a brand-new fire, first reported today.

Size
20 acres
Containment
Not yet reported
Discovered
September 19, 2026 (first reported today)
Cause
Not reported

The size and containment above are current as of Saturday, September 19th at 4:00 p.m. CDT.

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Weather & fire-spread conditions

No Red Flag Warning. The National Weather Service hasn't flagged this area for dangerous fire-spread conditions right now.

Hot, dry, and windy weather can help a fire grow; cool, calm, or wet weather helps crews. The tags below rate each day for fire spread — green is calm, red can push a fire.

A general fire-weather guide (wind matters most, then how dry it is, then heat), not a prediction of what a specific fire will do.

Day Night
This Afternoon
99°F · Sunny
Wind 7 mph SW · 1% rain
Wind: Calm Heat: Hot Dry
72°F · Mostly Clear
Wind 3 mph SSW · 1% rain
Wind: Calm Heat: Cool Dry
Sunday
97°F · Mostly Sunny
Wind 2 to 6 mph WSW · 2% rain
Wind: Calm Heat: Hot Dry
69°F · Partly Cloudy then Chance Showers And Thunderstorms
Wind 3 mph NE · 29% rain
Wind: Calm Heat: Cool Some rain
Monday
88°F · Chance Showers And Thunderstorms then Slight Chance Showers And Thunderstorms
Wind 3 to 7 mph NE · 56% rain
Wind: Calm Heat: Warm Rain likely
—

Forecast from the National Weather Service (weather.gov), pulled Saturday, September 19th at 4:04 p.m. CDT.

Could this fire move fast?

Weather isn't the only thing that changes how a fire moves. The ground matters too: how steep it is, and what's growing on it. These four numbers are for the exact spot where this fire started, not the whole fire. A big fire crosses a lot of different ground.

3° slope

Fire usually moves faster uphill than downhill. Heat and flame lean uphill, drying out the ground above the fire before it gets there.

0% tree canopy cover

The more tree cover above a fire, the easier it is for the fire to climb from the ground into the treetops. That's called a crown fire. Crown fires move faster, throw embers farther ahead of the fire, and are harder for crews to stop head-on.

358 ft elevation

Elevation by itself doesn't make a fire more or less dangerous. But it shapes the other three numbers here: what grows there, how dry things get, and what the weather does.

Elevation and slope from the USGS 3D Elevation Program; fuel type and canopy cover from LANDFIRE (USGS and U.S. Forest Service), pulled Saturday, September 19th at 4:07 p.m. CDT.

Who's on it

This fire is small enough that no crew size or team has been posted yet. That's normal for a fire this size — those numbers show up once a fire is big enough to need a formal report.

Where to get live updates

We show the daily official picture. For minute-by-minute updates, evacuation orders, and maps, these do it best:

Nearby fires to Howerdton Fire

No other active fires are near this one right now. It's on its own.

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