Awatchfire

Oglala Lakota County, South Dakota

Needles Fire

Burning 2.7 miles north-east of Porcupine and 10.3 miles north-east of Manderson-White Horse Creek, since Friday 4 September.

Map of South Dakota. The Needles Fire burns .
Where the fire is in the state.

6,018

acres burned so far — about 9 square miles

40

days burning so far

100%

of the perimeter held

The picture as of 10:09am today

The Needles Fire is still listed as active, and has not been looked at lately. Nothing has given off fresh heat for 956 hours. What is burning has shifted 0.87 miles south-west over the last six hours.

No fresh look at this fire for 956 hours. Everything on the map below was seen before then.

Shaded relief map of the Needles 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

956hours

since anything was last seen giving off heat — about 1:40pm on Saturday, local time.

117% more

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

1.4miles

is how close the heat has come to Porcupine 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 Manderson-White Horse Creek is 9.0 miles, None in the last day.

1.3miles

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

Four other fires are burning inside the same view. Candle Fire started on Wednesday 12 August, 0.7 miles north-west, and has reached 64 acres. Event Fire started 15 minutes after this one, 1.4 miles north-east, and has reached 230 acres. Phahin Fire started on Tuesday 11 August, 2.0 miles south, and has reached 26 acres. Rancher Fire started on Tuesday 11 August, 1.7 miles north-west, and has reached 504 acres with 2 people assigned. 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 six times so far. The thickest of it was thin between 2:10pm and 5:30pm local time. The last of those windows closed 121 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 2.3 miles from the fire: 49°F, air at 59% humidity, a 25 mph wind out of the north.

How it got here

Two days of record on a day-42 fire

The record here begins at 12:53pm on 4 Sep and runs to 1:38pm on 5 Sep — 25 hours, 83 readings of heat. The fire is on day 42, so the first 40 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. There is no long arc to draw yet. What follows is what has actually happened.

Animated map of the Needles Fire across the whole record, with a time bar along the bottom showing energy released and the local date.
The whole record, 32 frames at 1 hour a frame. The bar along the bottom is energy released; the moving line is the clock.

Hour by hour local time

Fri 12:00pmSat 1:00pm

Each bar is one hour of local time, sized by how much energy the fire gave off in it. This fire is too young for a day-against-day comparison to say anything, so the hours are shown instead.

Day by day 2 days of record

  1. Map for Fri 4 Sep: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Fri4 Sep

    First readings

    • 25 heat readings
    • Heat from 12:53pm to 9:17pm
    • Spread 0.7 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the afternoon and night
  2. Map for Sat 5 Sep: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Sat5 Seplatest

    Today so far

    • 58 heat readings — the most of any day
    • Energy 10% down on the day before
    • Heat from 2:13am to 1:38pm
    • Spread 1.3 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn and afternoon

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. Friday 4 September

    First reported

  2. Friday 4 September

    1 acres on record

    1 ac

  3. Friday 4 September

    Grew to 960 acres

    960 ac

  4. Friday 4 September

    Containment 0% — 103 personnel

    960 ac · 0% held · 103 crew

  5. Saturday 5 September

    Grew to 4,000 acres — containment 30%, 130 personnel

    4,000 ac · 30% held · 130 crew

  6. Saturday 5 September

    Grew to 6,018 acres

    6,018 ac · 30% held · 130 crew

  7. Monday 7 September

    Containment 45% — 88 personnel

    6,018 ac · 45% held · 88 crew

  8. Tuesday 8 September

    Containment 60% — 30 personnel

    6,018 ac · 60% held · 30 crew

  9. Wednesday 9 September

    Containment 70%

    6,018 ac · 70% held · 30 crew

  10. Thursday 10 September

    Containment 90%

    6,018 ac · 90% held · 30 crew

  11. Thursday 17 September

    Containment 100% — 14 personnel

    6,018 ac · 100% held · 14 crew

100% of the perimeter is being reported as held. 14 people are assigned to it. It stands at 6,018 acres on the latest record. Nothing has looked at it for 956 hours, and the record still lists it as active.