Awatchfire

Okanogan County, Washington

Sinlahekin Fire

Burning 8.6 miles south of Loomis and 10.4 miles north of Conconully, since Sunday 26 July.

Map of Washington. The Sinlahekin Fire burns 124 miles from Ellensburg and 126 miles from Spokane, and 188 miles from the state capital, Olympia.
The fire sits 124 miles from Ellensburg and 126 miles from Spokane.

163,001

acres burned so far — about 255 square miles

32

days burning so far

49%

of the perimeter held

The picture as of 1:52pm today

The Sinlahekin Fire is still listed as active, and has not been looked at lately. The last heat was seen 10 hours ago. There is no clear movement in the last six hours: the middle of the heat has shifted less than the width of the ground a single reading covers.

No fresh look at this fire for 10 hours. Everything on the map below was seen before then.

Shaded relief map of the Sinlahekin 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

10hours

since anything was last seen giving off heat — about 3:45am on Friday, local time.

20% 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.

3.5miles

is how close the heat has come to Loomis at any point in the record. In the last day the nearest heat has been 3.5 miles from it, and the closest this fire has come to Conconully is 6.2 miles, 6.7 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.

13.5miles

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 34 times so far. The thickest of it was thick between 5:00am and 8:00am local time.

Three places are burning

10.0 miles west of the recorded point

24 readings of heat in the last day — 82% of everything the fire gave off in that time.

3.5 miles north-west of the recorded point

14 readings of heat in the last day — 7% of everything the fire gave off in that time.

5.9 miles south-west of the recorded point

10 readings of heat in the last day — 10% of everything the fire gave off in that time.

Conditions measured 12.1 miles from the fire: 77°F, air at 28% humidity, a 6 mph wind out of the north-west.

How it got here

Seven days of record on a day-34 fire

The record here begins at 3:13am on 22 Aug and runs to 3:43am on 28 Aug — 144 hours, 689 readings of heat. The fire is on day 34, so the first 27 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 Sinlahekin Fire across the whole record, with a time bar along the bottom showing energy released and the local date.
The whole record, 51 frames at 3 hours a frame. The bar along the bottom is energy released; the moving line is the clock.

Day by day 7 days of record

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

    Sat22 Aug

    First readings

    • 5 heat readings
    • Heat from 3:13am to 3:13am
    • Spread 8.1 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn
  2. Map for Sun 23 Aug: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Sun23 Aug

    Flaring up

    • 14 heat readings
    • Energy 6.8 times the day before
    • Heat from 1:56am to 2:21pm
    • Spread 12.5 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn and afternoon
  3. Map for Mon 24 Aug: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Mon24 Aug

    Flaring up

    • 44 heat readings
    • Energy 39.2 times the day before
    • Heat from 2:13am to 9:19pm
    • Spread 12.6 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn, afternoon and night
  4. Map for Tue 25 Aug: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Tue25 Aug

    Holding

    • 106 heat readings
    • Energy 29% down on the day before
    • Heat from 1:56am to 8:21pm
    • Spread 12.5 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn, afternoon and evening
  5. Map for Wed 26 Aug: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Wed26 Aug

    The fiercest day

    • 280 heat readings — the most of any day
    • Energy 5.6 times the day before
    • Heat from 1:56am to 9:00pm
    • Spread 13.5 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn, morning, afternoon and night
  6. Map for Thu 27 Aug: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Thu27 Aug

    Cooling off

    • 193 heat readings
    • Energy 89% down on the day before
    • Heat from 2:22am to 9:38pm
    • Spread 13.4 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn, morning, afternoon and night
  7. Map for Fri 28 Aug: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Fri28 Auglatest

    Cooling off

    • 47 heat readings
    • Energy 86% down on the day before
    • Heat from 2:05am to 3:43am
    • Spread 13.4 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn

49% of the perimeter is being reported as held. 1595 people are assigned to it. It has grown from 10 acres when it was first written down to 163,001 now. Nothing has looked at it for 10 hours, and the record still lists it as active.