Awatchfire

Whatcom County, Washington

Luna Fire

Burning 22.0 miles north-east of Marblemount and 29.5 miles north-east of Rockport, since Thursday 2 July.

Map of Washington. The Luna Fire burns 58 miles from Bellingham and 98 miles from Seattle, and 146 miles from the state capital, Olympia.
The fire sits 58 miles from Bellingham and 98 miles from Seattle.

5,039

acres burned so far — about 8 square miles

57

days burning so far

29%

of the perimeter held

The picture as of 1:52pm today

The Luna Fire is still listed as active, and has not been looked at lately. The last heat was seen 11 hours ago.

No fresh look at this fire for 11 hours. Everything on the map below was seen before then.

Shaded relief map of the Luna 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

11hours

since anything was last seen giving off heat — about 3:00am on Friday, local time.

9readings

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

20.4miles

is how close the heat has come to Marblemount at any point in the record. In the last day the nearest heat has been 21.6 miles from it, and the closest this fire has come to Rockport is 28.0 miles, 29.5 in the last day.

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.

One larger fire is burning outside this frame: Border 2 Fire 14.8 miles north-east at 7,864 acres. None of their heat is counted here.

Smoke has been recorded lying over this ground 41 times so far. The thickest of it was thick between 8:00am and 10:00am local time.

One place is burning

2.8 miles south-east of the recorded point

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

Conditions measured 12.5 miles from the fire: 69°F, air at 53% humidity, a 2 mph wind out of the south-west.

How it got here

Six days of record on a day-58 fire

The record here begins at 2:52am on 22 Aug and runs to 2:58am on 28 Aug — 144 hours, 218 readings of heat. The fire is on day 58, so the first 52 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 Luna Fire across the whole record, with a time bar along the bottom showing energy released and the local date.
The whole record, 51 frames at 3 hours a frame. The bar along the bottom is energy released; the moving line is the clock.

Day by day 6 days of record

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

    Sat22 Aug

    First readings

    • 17 heat readings
    • Heat from 2:52am to 2:21pm
    • Spread 2.8 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn, morning and afternoon
  2. Map for Mon 24 Aug: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Mon24 Aug

    Holding

    • 10 heat readings
    • Energy 43% down on the day before
    • Heat from 1:06pm to 9:19pm
    • Spread 2.7 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the afternoon and night
  3. Map for Tue 25 Aug: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Tue25 Aug

    The fiercest day

    • 54 heat readings
    • Energy 8.5 times the day before
    • Heat from 2:13am to 8:21pm
    • Spread 3.1 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn, afternoon and evening
  4. Map for Wed 26 Aug: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Wed26 Aug

    Holding

    • 90 heat readings — the most of any day
    • Energy 8% down on the day before
    • Heat from 1:56am to 9:00pm
    • Spread 3.0 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn, afternoon and night
  5. Map for Thu 27 Aug: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Thu27 Aug

    Cooling off

    • 38 heat readings
    • Energy 60% down on the day before
    • Heat from 2:22am to 10:32am
    • Spread 3.1 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn and morning
  6. Map for Fri 28 Aug: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Fri28 Auglatest

    Cooling off

    • 9 heat readings
    • Energy 94% down on the day before
    • Heat from 2:05am to 2:58am
    • Spread 3.1 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn

29% of the perimeter is being reported as held. 5 people are assigned to it. It has grown from 0 acres when it was first written down to 5,039 now. Nothing has looked at it for 11 hours, and the record still lists it as active.