Open burning season runs January 15 through May 1.
That’s the official window.
What that date actually signals on the Cape isn’t “go ahead.”
It’s the start of the most misunderstood stretch of the year to burn.
Between mid-January and early spring, people burn for practical reasons.
Cleanup. Pruning. Clearing a property that finally isn’t buried in summer growth.
And on paper, it makes sense. The season is open. The air feels cold. The ground looks quiet.
But this is also when the Cape behaves in ways that don’t show up on rule lists.
Winter air doesn’t move the way people expect. Smoke doesn’t lift and disappear — it drifts, settles, and follows low spots. A burn that feels contained can suddenly send smoke across a road or into a house you didn’t even notice before.
That’s when things stop.
Not because the fire “got away.”
Because someone else had to deal with it.
This window — January 15 into late winter — is when a lot of burn days end early. Not dramatically. Just abruptly. A breeze shifts. Smoke goes sideways instead of up. A calm morning turns into a call by lunchtime.
Another thing people underestimate during this stretch: what they’re burning.
It isn’t fresh debris. It’s leaf litter that’s been drying since October. Pine needles cured by cold sun and salt air. Brush that looks damp on the outside but lights faster than expected once it catches.
So fires don’t usually spread far.
They travel.
Along driveways.
Across marsh edges.
Down roads that dip just enough to trap smoke.
That’s why the dates matter.
January 15 doesn’t mean conditions are forgiving.
It means they’re being judged — day by day, hour by hour — all the way to May 1.
If you’ve been here long enough, you’ve seen how this plays out. A reasonable plan. A short window. A burn that didn’t end the way it started.
The mistake isn’t ignoring the season.
It’s assuming the season is stable.
It isn’t — especially at the beginning.