Awatchfire

Whatcom County, Washington

Desolation Fire

Burning 31.7 miles north-east of Marblemount, since Monday 24 August.

Map of Washington. The Desolation Fire burns 67 miles from Bellingham and 108 miles from Seattle, and 155 miles from the state capital, Olympia.
The fire sits 67 miles from Bellingham and 108 miles from Seattle.

0

acres burned so far

51

days burning so far

—

no share of the perimeter reported held yet

The picture as of 9:09am today

The Desolation Fire is still listed as active, and has not been looked at lately. Nothing has given off fresh heat for 534 hours.

No fresh look at this fire for 534 hours. Everything on the map below was seen before then.

Shaded relief map of the Desolation 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

534hours

since anything was last seen giving off heat — about 3:10am on Wednesday, local time.

97% less

energy in the last 6 hours of the record than in the 6 before them — the fire was cooler when it was last seen.

31.8miles

is how close the heat has come to Marblemount at any point in the record. In the last day the nearest heat has been None miles from it.

3.1miles

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

Two larger fires are burning outside this frame: Border 2 Fire 6.5 miles north at 9,108 acres and Luna Fire 10.6 miles south-west at 8,553 acres. None of their heat is counted here.

No smoke has been recorded lying over this ground.

Where the heat is

No cluster large enough to call a separate front. The heat is in one piece.

Conditions measured 6.0 miles from the fire: 42°F, air at 96% humidity, a 1 mph wind out of the north.

How it got here

15 days of record on a day-53 fire

The record here begins at 4:07pm on 24 Aug and runs to 3:11am on 23 Sep — 707 hours, 320 readings of heat. The fire is on day 53, so the first 38 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 Desolation Fire across the whole record, with a time bar along the bottom showing energy released and the local date.
The whole record, 238 frames at 3 hours a frame. The bar along the bottom is energy released; the moving line is the clock.

Day by day 15 days of record

  1. Map for Mon 24 Aug: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Mon24 Aug

    First readings

    • 1 heat readings
    • Heat from 4:07pm to 4:07pm
    • Spread 3.0 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the afternoon
  2. Map for Tue 25 Aug: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Tue25 Aug

    Flaring up

    • 21 heat readings
    • Energy 12.9 times the day before
    • Heat from 3:00am to 3:03pm
    • Spread 3.1 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn and afternoon
  3. Map for Wed 26 Aug: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Wed26 Aug

    Cooling off

    • 23 heat readings
    • Energy 69% down on the day before
    • Heat from 2:43am to 4:21am
    • Spread 3.1 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn
  4. Map for Thu 27 Aug: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Thu27 Aug

    Holding

    • 20 heat readings
    • Energy 46% down on the day before
    • Heat from 2:22am to 4:02am
    • Spread 3.1 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn
  5. Map for Fri 28 Aug: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Fri28 Aug

    Cooling off

    • 3 heat readings
    • Energy 65% down on the day before
    • Heat from 2:58am to 2:08pm
    • Spread 2.9 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn and afternoon
  6. Map for Thu 10 Sep: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Thu10 Sep

    Flaring up

    • 13 heat readings
    • Energy 39.3 times the day before
    • Heat from 1:42pm to 3:03pm
    • Spread 2.8 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the afternoon
  7. Map for Fri 11 Sep: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Fri11 Sep

    Cooling off

    • 5 heat readings
    • Energy 98% down on the day before
    • Heat from 3:17am to 3:38am
    • Spread 2.7 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn
  8. Map for Wed 16 Sep: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Wed16 Sep

    Flaring up

    • 1 heat readings
    • Energy 2.6 times the day before
    • Heat from 9:34pm to 9:34pm
    • Spread 2.3 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the night
  9. Map for Thu 17 Sep: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Thu17 Sep

    Flaring up

    • 29 heat readings
    • Energy 7.3 times the day before
    • Heat from 3:06am to 4:33pm
    • Spread 2.9 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn and afternoon
  10. Map for Fri 18 Sep: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Fri18 Sep

    Holding

    • 31 heat readings
    • Energy 11% down on the day before
    • Heat from 2:09am to 9:14pm
    • Spread 2.8 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn, afternoon and night
  11. Map for Sat 19 Sep: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Sat19 Sep

    Holding

    • 16 heat readings
    • Energy 1.5 times the day before
    • Heat from 3:32am to 4:12pm
    • Spread 2.4 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn and afternoon
  12. Map for Sun 20 Sep: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Sun20 Sep

    The fiercest day

    • 68 heat readings
    • Energy 4.6 times the day before
    • Heat from 2:28am to 8:53pm
    • Spread 2.8 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn, afternoon and evening
  13. Map for Mon 21 Sep: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Mon21 Sep

    Cooling off

    • 76 heat readings — the most of any day
    • Energy 67% down on the day before
    • Heat from 2:09am to 9:32pm
    • Spread 3.0 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn, morning and night
  14. Map for Tue 22 Sep: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Tue22 Sep

    Holding

    • 12 heat readings
    • Energy 36% down on the day before
    • Heat from 3:13am to 4:26pm
    • Spread 2.0 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn and afternoon
  15. Map for Wed 23 Sep: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Wed23 Seplatest

    Cooling off

    • 1 heat readings
    • Energy 99% down on the day before
    • Heat from 3:11am to 3:11am
    • Spread 1.7 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. Monday 24 August

    First reported

  2. Monday 24 August

    0 acres on record

    0 ac

No containment figure has been reported for it yet. No crew count has been published for it yet. It has grown from 0 acres when it was first written down to 0 now. Nothing has looked at it for 534 hours, and the record still lists it as active.