Awatchfire

Thurston County, Washington

Northbound Fire

Burning 1.5 miles south of Grand Mound and 2.2 miles north of Fords Prairie, since Wednesday 9 September.

Map of Washington. The Northbound Fire burns 19 miles from Olympia and 65 miles from Seattle, and 19 miles from the state capital, Olympia.
The fire sits 19 miles from Olympia and 65 miles from Seattle.

0

acres burned so far

36

days burning so far

—

no share of the perimeter reported held yet

The picture as of 7:50pm today

The Northbound Fire is easing, but far from out. The last heat was seen 4 hours ago.

Shaded relief map of the Northbound 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

4hours

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

57% less

energy in the last 1.4 hours of the record than in the 1.4 before them — the fire was cooler when it was last seen.

2.0miles

is how close the heat has come to Grand Mound at any point in the record. In the last day the nearest heat has been 2.0 miles from it, and the closest this fire has come to Fords Prairie is 1.4 miles, 1.4 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.

0.9miles

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. Grand Mound Peak Fire started on Monday 21 September, 2.4 miles north-west, and has reached 4 acres. James Fire started on Monday 28 September, 1.8 miles north-west, and has reached 0 acres. Their heat is counted against them, not against this fire, and the pale rings on the map mark where they are recorded.

No smoke has been recorded lying over this ground.

One place is burning

0.7 miles south of the recorded point

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

Conditions measured 21.2 miles from the fire: 60°F, air at 77% humidity, a 2 mph wind out of the east.

How it got here

One day of record on a day-37 fire

The record here begins at 1:29pm on 15 Oct and runs to 4:16pm on 15 Oct — 3 hours, 6 readings of heat. The fire is on day 37, so the first 36 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 Northbound Fire across the whole record, with a time bar along the bottom showing energy released and the local date.
The whole record, 10 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

Thu 1:00pmThu 4:00pm

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 1 day of record

  1. Map for Thu 15 Oct: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Thu15 Octlatest

    First readings

    • 6 heat readings
    • Heat from 1:29pm to 4:16pm
    • Spread 0.9 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the 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. Wednesday 9 September

    First reported

  2. Wednesday 9 September

    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. Heat was still showing within the last half-day, and the record still lists this fire as active.