Awatchfire

Grant County, Washington

Ancient Lakes Fire

Burning 4.9 miles south-east of Crescent Bar and 6.4 miles north-west of George, since Friday 9 October.

Map of Washington. The Ancient Lakes Fire burns 30 miles from Ellensburg and 48 miles from Yakima, and 139 miles from the state capital, Olympia.
The fire sits 30 miles from Ellensburg and 48 miles from Yakima.

15

acres burned so far

6

days burning so far

—

no share of the perimeter reported held yet

The picture as of 7:50pm today

The Ancient Lakes Fire is easing, but far from out. The last heat was seen 4 hours ago.

Shaded relief map of the Ancient Lakes Fire. Amber flames mark every place that gave off heat in the last day; the shading is the shape of the ground.
Heat in the last day Higher ground pale, valleys dark

4hours

since anything was last seen giving off heat — about 4:15pm on Thursday, local time.

89% less

energy in the last 1.7 hours of the record than in the 1.7 before them — the fire was cooler when it was last seen.

4.7miles

is how close the heat has come to Crescent Bar at any point in the record. In the last day the nearest heat has been 4.7 miles from it, and the closest this fire has come to George is 6.9 miles, 6.9 in the last day. The two figures are the same because the record is barely a day long: the last day is very nearly all of it.

3.0miles

is the furthest any heat has been seen from the point on the official record — the width of the ground involved so far.

No smoke has been recorded lying over this ground.

One place is burning

2.9 miles north-east of the recorded point

7 readings of heat in the last day — all of the heat seen in that time.

Nothing close enough to the fire has reported the conditions on the ground.

How it got here

One day of record on a day-7 fire

The record here begins at 12:47pm on 15 Oct and runs to 4:16pm on 15 Oct — 4 hours, 7 readings of heat. The fire is on day 7, so the first 6 days are missing: nothing showed up from above until the fire was large enough and the sky over it clear enough for it to be seen. There is no long arc to draw yet. What follows is what has actually happened.

Animated map of the Ancient Lakes Fire across the whole record, with a time bar along the bottom showing energy released and the local date.
The whole record, 11 frames at 1 hour a frame. The bar along the bottom is energy released; the moving line is the clock.

Hour by hour local time

Thu 12:00pmThu 4:00pm

Each bar is one hour of local time, sized by how much energy the fire gave off in it. This fire is too young for a day-against-day comparison to say anything, so the hours are shown instead.

Day by day 1 day of record

  1. Map for Thu 15 Oct: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Thu15 Octlatest

    First readings

    • 7 heat readings
    • Heat from 12:47pm to 4:16pm
    • Spread 3.0 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the afternoon

How the record has moved

Each step is a change on the interagency incident record — acreage, containment or crews — with the date it was reported. No satellite reading is involved.

  1. Friday 9 October

    First reported at 15 acres

    15 ac

  2. Friday 9 October

    15 acres on record

    15 ac

No containment figure has been reported for it yet. No crew count has been published for it yet. It has grown from 15 acres when it was first written down to 15 now. Heat was still showing within the last half-day, and the record still lists this fire as active.