Awatchfire

Harney County, Oregon

Bald Mountain Fire

Burning 29.7 miles south of Crane, since Thursday 23 July.

Map of Oregon. The Bald Mountain Fire burns 127 miles from Baker City and 160 miles from Bend, and 262 miles from the state capital, Salem.
The fire sits 127 miles from Baker City and 160 miles from Bend.

76,443

acres burned so far — about 119 square miles

84

days burning so far

100%

of the perimeter held

The picture as of 7:50pm today

The Bald Mountain Fire is still building. The last heat was seen 4 hours ago.

Shaded relief map of the Bald Mountain 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.

209% more

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

23.6miles

is how close the heat has come to Crane at any point in the record. In the last day the nearest heat has been 23.6 miles from it. The two figures are the same because the record is barely a day long: the last day is very nearly all of it.

9.2miles

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

7.3 miles north-west of the recorded point

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

Conditions measured 7.4 miles from the fire: 52°F, air at 21% humidity, a 15 mph wind out of the north-east.

How it got here

One day of record on a day-85 fire

The record here begins at 12:47pm on 15 Oct and runs to 4:14pm on 15 Oct — 4 hours, 10 readings of heat. The fire is on day 85, so the first 84 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 Bald Mountain 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

    • 10 heat readings
    • Heat from 12:47pm to 4:14pm
    • Spread 9.2 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. Thursday 23 July

    First reported

  2. Sunday 23 August

    76,443 acres on record — 99% contained, 32 personnel assigned

    76,443 ac · 99% held · 32 crew

  3. Friday 11 September

    Containment 100% — 2 personnel

    76,443 ac · 100% held · 2 crew

100% of the perimeter is being reported as held. 2 people are assigned to it. It has grown from 0 acres when it was first written down to 76,443 now. Heat was still showing within the last half-day, and the record still lists this fire as active.