Awatchfire

Kittitas County, Washington

Three Queens Fire

Burning 7.1 miles east of Snoqualmie Pass and 11.4 miles north-west of Roslyn, since Wednesday 15 July.

Map of Washington. The Three Queens Fire burns 44 miles from Ellensburg and 53 miles from Seattle, and 81 miles from the state capital, Olympia.
The fire sits 44 miles from Ellensburg and 53 miles from Seattle.

8,249

acres burned so far — about 13 square miles

43

days burning so far

5%

of the perimeter held

The picture as of 1:52pm today

The Three Queens Fire is still listed as active, and has not been looked at lately. The last heat was seen 10 hours ago.

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

Shaded relief map of the Three Queens 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

10hours

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

6readings

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

5.8miles

is how close the heat has come to Snoqualmie Pass at any point in the record. In the last day the nearest heat has been 6.6 miles from it, and the closest this fire has come to Roslyn is 8.5 miles, 10.4 in the last day.

3.1miles

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

Another fire is burning inside the same view. King Fire started on Wednesday 19 August, 3.9 miles north, and has reached 1,835 acres. Its heat is counted against it, not against this fire, and the pale ring on the map marks where it is recorded.

Smoke has been recorded lying over this ground 49 times so far. The thickest of it was thick between 5:00am and 8:00am local time.

Where the heat is

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

Conditions measured 2.7 miles from the fire: 69°F, air at 45% humidity, a 3 mph wind out of the south-west.

How it got here

Seven days of record on a day-45 fire

The record here begins at 2:15am on 22 Aug and runs to 3:43am on 28 Aug — 146 hours, 580 readings of heat. The fire is on day 45, so the first 38 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 Three Queens 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

    • 205 heat readings — the most of any day
    • Heat from 2:15am to 2:38pm
    • Spread 3.1 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn, morning and afternoon
  2. Map for Sun 23 Aug: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Sun23 Aug

    Cooling off

    • 1 heat readings
    • Energy 99% down on the day before
    • Heat from 1:23pm to 1:23pm
    • Spread 0.6 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the afternoon
  3. Map for Mon 24 Aug: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Mon24 Aug

    Flaring up

    • 56 heat readings
    • Energy 31.4 times the day before
    • Heat from 2:34am to 9:19pm
    • Spread 3.0 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

    Flaring up

    • 94 heat readings
    • Energy 2.3 times the day before
    • Heat from 2:15am to 8:21pm
    • Spread 2.7 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn, morning, afternoon and evening
  5. Map for Wed 26 Aug: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Wed26 Aug

    Holding

    • 124 heat readings
    • Energy 10% down on the day before
    • Heat from 1:56am to 9:00pm
    • Spread 3.0 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn, afternoon and night
  6. Map for Thu 27 Aug: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Thu27 Aug

    Cooling off

    • 94 heat readings
    • Energy 62% down on the day before
    • Heat from 2:22am to 1:51pm
    • Spread 3.0 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn and afternoon
  7. Map for Fri 28 Aug: flames mark every place that gave off heat that day.

    Fri28 Auglatest

    Cooling off

    • 6 heat readings
    • Energy 96% down on the day before
    • Heat from 3:00am to 3:43am
    • Spread 2.1 miles from the recorded point at its furthest
    • Burning through the pre-dawn

5% of the perimeter is being reported as held. 771 people are assigned to it. It has grown from 1 acres when it was first written down to 8,249 now. Nothing has looked at it for 10 hours, and the record still lists it as active.