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.

8,553

acres burned so far — about 13 square miles

104

days burning so far

42%

of the perimeter held

The picture as of 9:09am today

The Luna Fire is still listed as active, and has not been looked at lately. Nothing has given off fresh heat for 557 hours.

No fresh look at this fire for 557 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

557hours

since anything was last seen giving off heat — about 4:15am on Tuesday, local time.

0readings

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 None miles from it, and the closest this fire has come to Rockport is 28.0 miles, None 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 9,108 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 12.5 miles from the fire: 42°F, air at 99% humidity, a 0 mph wind out of the north-east.

How it got here

16 days of record on a day-106 fire

The record here begins at 2:52am on 22 Aug and runs to 4:17am on 22 Sep — 745 hours, 284 readings of heat. The fire is on day 106, so the first 90 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, 251 frames at 3 hours a frame. The bar along the bottom is energy released; the moving line is the clock.

Day by day 16 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 Aug

    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
  7. Map for Mon 31 Aug: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Mon31 Aug

    Cooling off

    • 1 heat readings
    • Energy 94% down on the day before
    • Heat from 3:24am to 3:24am
    • Spread 2.9 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

    Flaring up

    • 5 heat readings
    • Energy 4.0 times the day before
    • Heat from 3:04am to 4:08am
    • Spread 3.1 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn
  9. Map for Fri 11 Sep: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Fri11 Sep

    Cooling off

    • 1 heat readings
    • Energy 75% down on the day before
    • Heat from 3:17am to 3:17am
    • Spread 2.4 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn
  10. Map for Sat 12 Sep: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Sat12 Sep

    Flaring up

    • 2 heat readings
    • Energy 2.0 times the day before
    • Heat from 2:58am to 2:58am
    • Spread 2.2 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn
  11. Map for Wed 16 Sep: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Wed16 Sep

    Holding

    • 2 heat readings
    • Energy 1.0 times the day before
    • Heat from 3:24am to 3:43am
    • Spread 2.3 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn
  12. Map for Thu 17 Sep: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Thu17 Sep

    Flaring up

    • 14 heat readings
    • Energy 28.0 times the day before
    • Heat from 3:06am to 4:33pm
    • Spread 2.6 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn and afternoon
  13. Map for Fri 18 Sep: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Fri18 Sep

    Holding

    • 9 heat readings
    • Energy 38% down on the day before
    • Heat from 3:06am to 2:33pm
    • Spread 2.7 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn and afternoon
  14. Map for Sun 20 Sep: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Sun20 Sep

    Holding

    • 7 heat readings
    • Energy 20% down on the day before
    • Heat from 3:11am to 3:16pm
    • Spread 2.4 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn and afternoon
  15. Map for Mon 21 Sep: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Mon21 Sep

    Flaring up

    • 16 heat readings
    • Energy 2.2 times the day before
    • Heat from 2:54am to 3:18pm
    • Spread 2.1 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn and afternoon
  16. Map for Tue 22 Sep: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Tue22 Seplatest

    Cooling off

    • 9 heat readings
    • Energy 79% down on the day before
    • Heat from 3:13am to 4:17am
    • Spread 2.3 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. Thursday 2 July

    First reported

  2. Sunday 23 August

    4,776 acres on record — 0% contained, 16 personnel assigned

    4,776 ac · 0% held · 16 crew

  3. Wednesday 26 August

    Containment 31% — 1 personnel

    4,776 ac · 31% held · 1 crew

  4. Thursday 27 August

    Grew to 5,039 acres — containment 29%, 5 personnel

    5,039 ac · 29% held · 5 crew

  5. Saturday 29 August

    Grew to 5,740 acres — containment 27%

    5,740 ac · 27% held · 5 crew

  6. Sunday 30 August

    Revised to 5,470 acres

    5,470 ac · 27% held · 5 crew

  7. Tuesday 1 September

    Grew to 7,648 acres — containment 34%

    7,648 ac · 34% held · 5 crew

  8. Friday 4 September

    Grew to 7,722 acres

    7,722 ac · 34% held · 5 crew

  9. Thursday 10 September

    Grew to 7,835 acres

    7,835 ac · 34% held · 5 crew

  10. Friday 11 September

    Grew to 7,879 acres

    7,879 ac · 34% held · 5 crew

  11. Thursday 17 September

    Containment 53%

    7,879 ac · 53% held · 5 crew

  12. Monday 21 September

    Grew to 8,124 acres — containment 46%

    8,124 ac · 46% held · 5 crew

  13. Tuesday 22 September

    Grew to 8,553 acres — containment 42%

    8,553 ac · 42% held · 5 crew

42% 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 8,553 now. Nothing has looked at it for 557 hours, and the record still lists it as active.