Awatchfire

Snohomish County, Washington

Priest Fire

Burning 3.5 miles south-west of Marysville and 5.5 miles north-east of Hat Island, since Thursday 27 August.

Map of Washington. The Priest Fire burns 31 miles from Seattle and 50 miles from Bellingham, and 77 miles from the state capital, Olympia.
The fire sits 31 miles from Seattle and 50 miles from Bellingham.

1

acres burned so far

48

days burning so far

—

no share of the perimeter reported held yet

The picture as of 9:09am today

The Priest Fire is still listed as active, and has not been looked at lately. Nothing has given off fresh heat for 1062 hours.

No fresh look at this fire for 1062 hours. Everything on the map below was seen before then.

Shaded relief map of the Priest 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

1062hours

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

0readings

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

5.4miles

is how close the heat has come to Marysville 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 Hat Island is 4.4 miles, None in the last day.

2.6miles

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. Church Site Fire started on Thursday 10 September, 2.7 miles west, and has reached 0 acres. Steam Boat Fire started on Saturday 19 September, 1.4 miles east, 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.

Where the heat is

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

Conditions measured 12.3 miles from the fire: 53°F, air at 84% humidity, a 2 mph wind out of the south-west.

How it got here

One day of record on a day-50 fire

The record here begins at 3:06am on 1 Sep and runs to 3:06am on 1 Sep — 0 hours, 1 readings of heat. The fire is on day 50, so the first 49 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 Priest Fire across the whole record, with a time bar along the bottom showing energy released and the local date.
The whole record, 7 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

Tue 3:00amTue 3:00am

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 Tue 1 Sep: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Tue1 Seplatest

    First readings

    • 1 heat readings
    • Heat from 3:06am to 3:06am
    • Spread 2.6 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 27 August

    First reported at 1 acres

    1 ac

  2. Thursday 27 August

    1 acres on record

    1 ac

No containment figure has been reported for it yet. No crew count has been published for it yet. It has grown from 1 acres when it was first written down to 1 now. Nothing has looked at it for 1062 hours, and the record still lists it as active.