Awatchfire

Okanogan County, Washington

Ptarmigan Fire

Map of Washington. The Ptarmigan Fire burns 86 miles from Bellingham and 122 miles from Seattle, and 169 miles from the state capital, Olympia.
The fire sits 86 miles from Bellingham and 122 miles from Seattle.

24,770

acres burned so far — about 39 square miles

42

days burning so far

55%

of the perimeter held

The picture as of 1:52pm today

The Ptarmigan Fire is still listed as active, and has not been looked at lately. Nothing has given off fresh heat for 35 hours.

No fresh look at this fire for 35 hours. Everything on the map below was seen before then.

Shaded relief map of the Ptarmigan 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

35hours

since anything was last seen giving off heat — about 3:15am on Thursday, local time.

85% less

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

5.2miles

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

Smoke has been recorded lying over this ground 23 times so far. The thickest of it was thick between 8:00am and 10:00am local time.

Where the heat is

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

Conditions measured 14.2 miles from the fire: 53°F, air at 48% humidity, a 3 mph wind out of the south-west.

How it got here

Four days of record on a day-43 fire

The record here begins at 3:13am on 22 Aug and runs to 3:17am on 27 Aug — 120 hours, 50 readings of heat. The fire is on day 43, so the first 39 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 Ptarmigan Fire across the whole record, with a time bar along the bottom showing energy released and the local date.
The whole record, 43 frames at 3 hours a frame. The bar along the bottom is energy released; the moving line is the clock.

Day by day 4 days of record

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

    Sat22 Aug

    First readings

    • 23 heat readings — the most of any day
    • Heat from 3:13am to 2:21pm
    • Spread 5.2 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn and afternoon
  2. Map for Tue 25 Aug: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Tue25 Aug

    Cooling off

    • 7 heat readings
    • Energy 84% down on the day before
    • Heat from 1:42pm to 3:03pm
    • Spread 4.3 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the afternoon
  3. Map for Wed 26 Aug: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Wed26 Aug

    Flaring up

    • 17 heat readings
    • Energy 3.3 times the day before
    • Heat from 2:43am to 3:44pm
    • Spread 5.2 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn and afternoon
  4. Map for Thu 27 Aug: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Thu27 Auglatest

    Cooling off

    • 3 heat readings
    • Energy 97% down on the day before
    • Heat from 2:58am to 3:17am
    • Spread 4.3 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn

55% of the perimeter is being reported as held. 42 people are assigned to it. It has grown from 0 acres when it was first written down to 24,770 now. Nothing has looked at it for 35 hours, and the record still lists it as active.