Awatchfire

Orange County, California

Drip Fire

Burning 4.2 miles west of Williams Canyon and 4.4 miles north-east of Irvine, since Wednesday 30 September.

Map of California. The Drip Fire burns 395 miles from Sacramento, and 395 miles from the state capital, Sacramento.
The fire sits 395 miles from Sacramento.

—

acreage not yet reported

14

days burning so far

—

no share of the perimeter reported held yet

The picture as of 9:09am today

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

Shaded relief map of the Drip 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 Where another fire is recorded

6hours

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

3readings

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

4.1miles

is how close the heat has come to Williams Canyon at any point in the record. In the last day the nearest heat has been 4.1 miles from it, and the closest this fire has come to Irvine is 4.1 miles, 4.3 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.

0.3miles

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

Two other fires are burning inside the same view. Jamboree Fire started on Friday 11 September, 3.9 miles north-west, and has reached an unrecorded size. Springs Fire started on Thursday 1 October, 0.7 miles south, and has reached an unrecorded size. Their heat is counted against them, not against this fire, and the pale rings on the map mark where they are recorded.

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.

Where the heat is

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

Conditions measured 2.8 miles from the fire: 78°F, air at 18% humidity, a 11 mph wind out of the north-east.

How it got here

12 days of record on a day-16 fire

The record here begins at 1:48am on 30 Sep and runs to 3:04am on 15 Oct — 361 hours, 45 readings of heat. The fire is on day 16, so the first 4 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 Drip Fire across the whole record, with a time bar along the bottom showing energy released and the local date.
The whole record, 123 frames at 3 hours a frame. The bar along the bottom is energy released; the moving line is the clock.

Day by day 12 days of record

  1. Map for Wed 30 Sep: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Wed30 Sep

    First readings

    • 4 heat readings
    • Heat from 1:48am to 3:28am
    • Spread 0.2 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn
  2. Map for Thu 1 Oct: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Thu1 Oct

    Holding

    • 3 heat readings
    • Energy 1.0 times the day before
    • Heat from 2:05am to 3:11am
    • Spread 0.2 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn
  3. Map for Fri 2 Oct: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Fri2 Oct

    Flaring up

    • 4 heat readings
    • Energy 1.7 times the day before
    • Heat from 2:07am to 3:28am
    • Spread 0.2 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn
  4. Map for Sat 3 Oct: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Sat3 Oct

    The fiercest day

    • 3 heat readings
    • Energy 1.4 times the day before
    • Heat from 2:32am to 3:28am
    • Spread 0.2 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn
  5. Map for Sun 4 Oct: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Sun4 Oct

    Holding

    • 4 heat readings
    • Energy 29% down on the day before
    • Heat from 2:13am to 3:11am
    • Spread 0.2 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn
  6. Map for Mon 5 Oct: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Mon5 Oct

    Holding

    • 4 heat readings
    • Energy 1.2 times the day before
    • Heat from 1:56am to 3:36am
    • Spread 0.3 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn
  7. Map for Tue 6 Oct: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Tue6 Oct

    Holding

    • 4 heat readings
    • Energy 17% down on the day before
    • Heat from 2:13am to 2:32am
    • Spread 0.2 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn
  8. Map for Wed 7 Oct: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Wed7 Oct

    Holding

    • 3 heat readings
    • Energy 40% down on the day before
    • Heat from 2:13am to 3:34am
    • Spread 0.3 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn
  9. Map for Thu 8 Oct: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Thu8 Oct

    Flaring up

    • 5 heat readings — the most of any day
    • Energy 1.7 times the day before
    • Heat from 1:54am to 3:36am
    • Spread 0.2 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn
  10. Map for Fri 9 Oct: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Fri9 Oct

    Holding

    • 5 heat readings
    • Energy 1.4 times the day before
    • Heat from 2:20am to 2:16pm
    • Spread 0.2 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn and afternoon
  11. Map for Wed 14 Oct: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Wed14 Oct

    Cooling off

    • 3 heat readings
    • Energy 57% down on the day before
    • Heat from 2:26am to 3:21am
    • Spread 0.2 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn
  12. Map for Thu 15 Oct: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Thu15 Octlatest

    Today so far

    • 3 heat readings
    • Energy 1.0 times the day before
    • Heat from 2:07am to 3:04am
    • Spread 0.1 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. Wednesday 30 September

    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.