The moment a wildfire starts near you, you'll get an instant alert and simple tips to reduce your smoke exposure.
30xSmaller than a human hair
Fine enough to reach deep into the lungs. A MERV 13 is built to capture it.
It Doesn't Stay Local
Smoke rides the wind far downwind — you can get smoky air with no fire nearby.
Simple steps to reduce indoor exposure.
During smoke events, the EPA recommends upgrading to a MERV 13 filter — or the highest-rated filter your system can handle — to help reduce the fine particles smoke brings indoors. MERV 13 is the level most home HVAC systems can run while still capturing PM2.5, the fine particulate that makes up the bulk of wildfire smoke.
Over 70,000 wildfires burn in the U.S. every year.
Wildfire smoke can travel 1,000+ miles, affecting states that aren't even near the blaze.
Exposure to wildfire smoke can worsen asthma, trigger heart issues, and lead to ER visits.
Indoor air can hold more fine particles during wildfire events unless it's properly filtered.
The EPA advises using MERV 13 filters or portable HEPA air cleaners during wildfire smoke events.
Use the live wildfire smoke tracker and upgrade your air filters today to protect your lungs and your home.
Shop Filters For Smoke Protection
By Michelle Wan, Brand Manager and Air Quality Writer. Reviewed by David Clark, Licensed HVAC Technician and CEO of Filterbuy HVAC Solutions. Published August 10, 2026. Updated August 10, 2026.
St. Petersburg seldom burns, but it gets smoke anyway. Pinellas County has little left to carry a fire, so haze over Tampa Bay usually starts in the pine flatwoods of Pasco or Polk, or a thousand miles north in Canada. As Filterbuy's air quality writer, I pull these readings daily. The live map below shows active fires, plumes, and neighborhood air quality.
St. Petersburg faces almost no wildfire risk inside city limits but regularly receives smoke from inland Florida and from fires far outside the state. The live Fire and Smoke Map on this page, from the EPA and U.S. Forest Service, shows fires, smoke plumes, and current air quality for your address. When it turns orange, red, or purple near Pinellas County, close the windows, set your air conditioner to recirculate, and run a MERV 13 filter.
Nearly all local smoke arrives from fires burning somewhere else.
Florida's fire season peaks March through May, not summer.
Summer haze over Tampa Bay is often Saharan dust, not smoke. The indoor response is the same.
The EPA recommends MERV 13 or higher during smoke events, a fan on, and replacement often.
Rarely inside city limits, but often close enough to matter. Fires in neighboring Pasco, Hillsborough, and Polk counties send smoke toward Pinellas regularly, and the live map above shows current locations and sizes. The Florida Forest Service also runs one of the largest prescribed fire programs in the country, roughly 88,000 burn authorizations across about 2.1 million acres in an average year. Those burns protect homes and produce smoke downwind.
Because Pinellas has almost nothing left to burn. It is the most densely developed county in Florida, with natural areas covering roughly 20,000 acres, so the wildfire question here is really a smoke transport question. County staff has described smoke at Brooker Creek Preserve that traveled more than 60 miles from a prescribed burn.
Two patterns account for most of it. In the dry season, easterly winds push smoke from the central Florida flatwoods and the Green Swamp across Tampa Bay. Long-range transport carries the rest down from Canada or the West. Then sea breezes off the Gulf and off Tampa Bay collide over the peninsula most afternoons and can stack that smoke up rather than sweep it out. I have watched local monitors sit green at nine and reach orange by three, with no new fire on the map.
Smoke risk here peaks in the dry months, not the hot ones. The worst stretch falls between March and May, while the rest of the country is not thinking about fire. Summer brings a different haze.
Typical patterns, not forecasts. Always check the live map.
From June through August, hazy skies over Tampa Bay are often Saharan dust rather than smoke. Both flatten the sky to a milky white, and both raise PM2.5. The tell is the map: smoke shows fires and plumes upwind, dust shows nothing on the fire layer. NOAA tracks the Saharan Air Layer, which peaks from late June through mid-August and reaches Florida. Close up, recirculate, and run the fan either way.
Three local conditions change the standard smoke advice here. Runtime: a St. Petersburg air handler runs close to year-round, so the filter is part-loaded before smoke season starts. Begin a smoke event with a fresh one. Humidity: coastal Gulf air is hard on frames, and a flimsy frame can bow in a damp return and open a gap along one edge, which is why every Filterbuy frame is moisture-resistant beverage board. Housing stock: the bungalows in Old Northeast, Kenwood, and Historic Uptown predate standardized filter sizes, so Filterbuy cuts more than 600 sizes and builds custom filters to an eighth of an inch.
The mistake I see most often is treating a smoke day as a shopping day. By the time the haze reaches Tampa Bay, the particles are already indoors. The households that come through a smoke week comfortably decided back in February.
Michelle Wan, Brand Manager and Air Quality Writer, Filterbuy
Wildfire smoke is mostly PM2.5, fine particles 2.5 microns or smaller that travel deep into the lungs and pass into the bloodstream. The EPA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that exposure irritates the eyes and airways and worsens asthma and heart conditions. St. Petersburg carries a large share of that higher-risk population: the Census Bureau reports 21.1 percent of residents are 65 or older. Children, pregnant people, and anyone with asthma, COPD, or heart disease respond most sharply.
The Air Quality Index runs 0 to 500 on a color-coded scale, and each band carries a different action for a Pinellas County home.
AQI ranges follow the EPA scale.
Close windows and doors, set the air conditioner to recirculate, install a MERV 13 filter, set the fan to On rather than Auto, and replace the filter more often while smoke persists.
The Environmental Protection Agency recommends MERV 13 or higher for the fine PM2.5 in smoke, in a system that can handle it. Heavy smoke loads a high-efficiency filter in days, not weeks. MERV 13 is not a HEPA filter, so pair one with a portable HEPA air cleaner in the room where your family spends the most time.
Rating is only half the job. A filter that rattles in the slot, or one you trim to fit, leaves a gap smoky air will find. Filterbuy custom filters cut to your exact opening are the fix.
Choosing between them: MERV 13 in your central system covers the whole home but only while the system runs; a portable HEPA cleaner covers one room well, and a DIY box-fan unit is a stopgap the EPA advises only for emergencies.
A portable HEPA air cleaner becomes your primary tool, not a backup. Window units, wall units, and mini-splits do not filter smoke: the screen behind the panel is a lint catcher for the coil, and a mini-split's washable mesh stops dust and hair, not fine particulate. Size a HEPA cleaner to the room where you sleep and run it continuously.
Two free steps help. Most window units have a vent or fresh-air lever on the chassis; set it to closed so the unit recirculates. And check the foam around the sash, because a window unit is a hole in your wall and smoke follows the draft. Filterbuy makes replacement filters for mini-split systems.
Check the live map above for air quality at your address before planning outdoor activity today.
Confirm your filter is fresh and rated MERV 13 if your system supports it. Find your correct filter size first.
Switch to recirculate and set the fan to On whenever the map shows orange or worse, then compare conditions statewide on the Florida wildfire and smoke map or the live Florida AQI map.
Florida is not the state people picture when they think about wildfire smoke, and St. Petersburg is the last city on that list. The pattern here is as dependable as anything out west: smoke arrives on a wind, from a fire nobody local can see, before anyone smells it. A filter cannot stop a wildfire, but sized right and installed before the haze, it captures a large share of the fine particles.
David Heacock, Founder and CEO, Filterbuy
AirNow Fire and Smoke Map from the EPA and Forest Service. Near real-time smoke, fires, and air quality.
EPA guidance on wildfires and indoor air quality. Keeping smoke out, choosing a rating.
CDC safety guidelines for wildfire smoke. Symptoms and higher-risk groups.
Florida Forest Service current wildfire information. Active incidents and burn bans.
Pinellas County Air Quality Program. County air monitoring network.
Wildfire smoke raises respiratory hospitalizations more than other particle pollution. Each 10 microgram-per-cubic-meter rise in wildfire PM2.5 raised respiratory hospitalizations 1.3 to 10 percent, versus 0.67 to 1.3 percent for other sources.
Source: Nature Communications. Aguilera et al., 2021.
Wildfires are frequent and widespread across the country. The United States recorded 77,850 wildfires in 2025, burning 5,131,474 acres.
Source: National Interagency Fire Center. 2025 wildland fire summary.
More than one in five St. Petersburg residents falls in a higher-risk age group. Adults 65 and older make up 21.1 percent of a population near 264,000.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts. 2025 population estimates.
Rarely inside city limits, but Pasco, Hillsborough, and Polk counties see regular wildfire and prescribed fire activity in the dry season. Check the live map above.
Smoke travels long distances on the wind, so haze over Tampa Bay usually comes from fires inland or in Canada and the West. Fine PM2.5 particles drift far from the flames and linger for days.
From June through August, it is often Saharan dust. If the live map shows no fires or plumes upwind and the air still looks milky, dust is the likely cause. Either way, it raises PM2.5, so close windows, recirculate, and run a MERV 13.
The EPA recommends MERV 13, or the highest rating your system can handle. Ask an HVAC technician if you are unsure. Filterbuy stocks MERV 13 in more than 600 sizes.
The map on this page tells you what the air is doing right now. The filter in your return decides what your household breathes once that smoke drifts in. Read today's map, then order Filterbuy MERV 13 air filters in your size before the next hazy sky over Tampa Bay.
Subscribe to wildfire smoke alerts for St. Petersburg, FL, to get a heads-up before the next event reaches your area.
