If the Pine Gulch Fire 12 miles north of Grand Junction, Colorado continues growing at the pace it has shown for the last couple of days, it will soon become the largest fire in the state’s recorded history, surpassing the Hayman Fire that burned 137,760 acres in 2002. On Wednesday the Pine Gulch Fire was 135,920 acres, an increase of 1,795 in the previous 24 hours.

The area was under a flash flood watch Wednesday afternoon for heavy rain from thunderstorms that could lead to flooding and debris flows.

In the last week the only large heat sources that satellites could detect were on the northwest edge where it has been spreading recently and in the interior. There are undoubtably many smaller hot areas still burning or smoldering that the satellites orbiting over 200 miles overhead could not detect.