Awatchfire

San Diego County, California

Convoy Fire

Burning 1.8 miles north-west of San Diego and 8.9 miles north-west of La Mesa, since Saturday 22 August.

Map of California. The Convoy Fire burns 464 miles from Sacramento, and 464 miles from the state capital, Sacramento.
The fire sits 464 miles from Sacramento.

—

acreage not yet reported

53

days burning so far

—

no share of the perimeter reported held yet

The picture as of 9:09am today

The Convoy Fire is burning. The last heat was seen 6 hours ago.

Shaded relief map of the Convoy 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

6hours

since anything was last seen giving off heat — about 3:05am on Thursday, local time.

4readings

of heat in the last day. There is not yet an earlier stretch of record to compare that against.

1.6miles

is how close the heat has come to San Diego at any point in the record. In the last day the nearest heat has been 2.9 miles from it, and the closest this fire has come to La Mesa is 8.6 miles, 9.4 in the last day.

2.3miles

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

Smoke has been recorded lying over this ground ten times so far. The thickest of it was moderate between 1:10pm and 4:30pm local time. The last of those windows closed 23 hours ago, so what is overhead now is not known.

One place is burning

1.4 miles north of the recorded point

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

Conditions measured 3.1 miles from the fire: 72°F, air at 34% humidity, a 1 mph wind out of the west.

How it got here

28 days of record on a day-55 fire

The record here begins at 2:20am on 22 Aug and runs to 3:04am on 15 Oct — 1297 hours, 66 readings of heat. The fire is on day 55, so the first 27 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.

Animated map of the Convoy Fire across the whole record, with a time bar along the bottom showing energy released and the local date.
The whole record, 435 frames at 3 hours a frame. The bar along the bottom is energy released; the moving line is the clock.

Day by day 28 days of record

  1. Map for Sat 22 Aug: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Sat22 Aug

    First readings

    • 4 heat readings — the most of any day
    • Heat from 2:20am to 2:33pm
    • Spread 1.5 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn and afternoon
  2. Map for Sun 23 Aug: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Sun23 Aug

    Cooling off

    • 3 heat readings
    • Energy 93% down on the day before
    • Heat from 2:02am to 2:56am
    • Spread 1.4 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn
  3. Map for Mon 24 Aug: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Mon24 Aug

    Holding

    • 3 heat readings
    • Energy 50% down on the day before
    • Heat from 2:17am to 3:21am
    • Spread 1.5 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn
  4. Map for Tue 25 Aug: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Tue25 Aug

    Holding

    • 1 heat readings
    • Energy 1.0 times the day before
    • Heat from 3:04am to 3:04am
    • Spread 1.3 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn
  5. Map for Wed 26 Aug: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Wed26 Aug

    Holding

    • 1 heat readings
    • Energy 1.0 times the day before
    • Heat from 2:45am to 2:45am
    • Spread 1.4 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn
  6. Map for Fri 28 Aug: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Fri28 Aug

    Flaring up

    • 2 heat readings
    • Energy 2.0 times the day before
    • Heat from 2:43am to 3:04am
    • Spread 1.5 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn
  7. Map for Sat 29 Aug: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Sat29 Aug

    Holding

    • 1 heat readings
    • Energy 50% down on the day before
    • Heat from 2:43am to 2:43am
    • Spread 1.3 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn
  8. Map for Tue 1 Sep: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Tue1 Sep

    Holding

    • 3 heat readings
    • Energy 1.0 times the day before
    • Heat from 2:32am to 3:28am
    • Spread 1.4 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn
  9. Map for Wed 2 Sep: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Wed2 Sep

    Holding

    • 2 heat readings
    • Energy 1.0 times the day before
    • Heat from 2:13am to 3:11am
    • Spread 1.5 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn
  10. Map for Thu 3 Sep: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Thu3 Sep

    Flaring up

    • 3 heat readings
    • Energy 2.0 times the day before
    • Heat from 1:56am to 2:49am
    • Spread 1.6 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn
  11. Map for Sat 5 Sep: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Sat5 Sep

    Holding

    • 3 heat readings
    • Energy 1.0 times the day before
    • Heat from 2:13am to 3:34am
    • Spread 1.6 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn
  12. Map for Mon 7 Sep: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Mon7 Sep

    Holding

    • 1 heat readings
    • Energy 50% down on the day before
    • Heat from 2:56am to 2:56am
    • Spread 1.3 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn
  13. Map for Fri 11 Sep: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Fri11 Sep

    Holding

    • 1 heat readings
    • Energy 1.0 times the day before
    • Heat from 2:45am to 2:45am
    • Spread 1.4 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn
  14. Map for Sat 12 Sep: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Sat12 Sep

    Holding

    • 2 heat readings
    • Energy 1.0 times the day before
    • Heat from 2:26am to 3:04am
    • Spread 1.6 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn
  15. Map for Wed 23 Sep: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Wed23 Sep

    Flaring up

    • 3 heat readings
    • Energy 2.0 times the day before
    • Heat from 2:20am to 3:15am
    • Spread 1.5 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn
  16. Map for Thu 24 Sep: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Thu24 Sep

    Flaring up

    • 2 heat readings
    • Energy 2.5 times the day before
    • Heat from 2:16pm to 2:16pm
    • Spread 2.3 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the afternoon
  17. Map for Fri 25 Sep: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Fri25 Sep

    The fiercest day

    • 3 heat readings
    • Energy 6.6 times the day before
    • Heat from 2:20am to 1:02pm
    • Spread 2.1 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn and afternoon
  18. Map for Sat 26 Sep: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Sat26 Sep

    Cooling off

    • 3 heat readings
    • Energy 94% down on the day before
    • Heat from 2:00am to 3:04am
    • Spread 1.5 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn
  19. Map for Tue 29 Sep: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Tue29 Sep

    Holding

    • 4 heat readings
    • Energy 1.0 times the day before
    • Heat from 2:07am to 3:04am
    • Spread 1.5 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn
  20. Map for Sat 3 Oct: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Sat3 Oct

    Holding

    • 1 heat readings
    • Energy 50% down on the day before
    • Heat from 2:32am to 2:32am
    • Spread 1.3 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn
  21. Map for Sun 4 Oct: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Sun4 Oct

    Flaring up

    • 3 heat readings
    • Energy 2.0 times the day before
    • Heat from 2:13am to 3:11am
    • Spread 1.6 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn
  22. Map for Mon 5 Oct: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Mon5 Oct

    Holding

    • 1 heat readings
    • Energy 50% down on the day before
    • Heat from 2:52am to 2:52am
    • Spread 1.4 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn
  23. Map for Tue 6 Oct: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Tue6 Oct

    Flaring up

    • 3 heat readings
    • Energy 2.0 times the day before
    • Heat from 2:13am to 3:15am
    • Spread 1.5 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn
  24. Map for Wed 7 Oct: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Wed7 Oct

    Cooling off

    • 1 heat readings
    • Energy 100% down on the day before
    • Heat from 2:13am to 2:13am
    • Spread 1.5 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn
  25. Map for Thu 8 Oct: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Thu8 Oct

    Flaring up

    • 3 heat readings
    • Heat from 1:56am to 3:15am
    • Spread 1.5 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn
  26. Map for Fri 9 Oct: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Fri9 Oct

    Flaring up

    • 3 heat readings
    • Energy 2.0 times the day before
    • Heat from 2:58am to 2:58am
    • Spread 1.6 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn
  27. Map for Wed 14 Oct: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Wed14 Oct

    Holding

    • 2 heat readings
    • Energy 1.0 times the day before
    • Heat from 2:26am to 3:04am
    • Spread 1.5 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn
  28. Map for Thu 15 Oct: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Thu15 Octlatest

    Today so far

    • 4 heat readings
    • Energy 1.5 times the day before
    • Heat from 2:07am to 3:04am
    • Spread 1.4 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn

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. Saturday 22 August

    First reported

No containment figure has been reported for it yet. No crew count has been published for it yet. Heat was still showing within the last half-day, and the record still lists this fire as active.