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VE · Venezuela · –

Achaguas fire, 14 March 2023 Achaguas

Out · last detection 27 Mar 2023, 18:00 UTC

The fire started on 14 March 2023 in Achaguas, Venezuela, and satellites saw it burning for 16 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,598 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 665th largest in Apure since 2016 (of 761 with a page). Number 159 in Venezuela in 2023, of 193.

Compare with…

Suggestions: Arismendi · 2024Francisco de Miranda · 2020Achaguas · 2020Achaguas · 2020

Burnt area
1,598ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
16days
14 Mar 2023 – 29 Mar 2023
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
14 Mar
2023
Heat detections
38
in a single hotspot: 42 MW
Danger at start
46
Very high · FWI index
Average daily power
34MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Mar29 Mar
27 Mar 2023

How it evolved, day by day

14 Mar 2023 · 6 MW · 1 16 Mar 2023 · 10 MW · 1 19 Mar 2023 · 17 MW · 3 21 Mar 2023 · 136 MW · 8 22 Mar 2023 · 45 MW · 11 23 Mar 2023 · 50 MW · 7 24 Mar 2023 · 10 MW · 3 25 Mar 2023 · 14 MW · 3 27 Mar 2023 · 22 MW · 1
14 Mar 21 Mar 24 Mar 27 Mar

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

38°high
49km/h · peak gust
18%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

24% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 384 ha in 2020.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 1% of the area of London (16 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Achaguas 28,966 inhabitants where it started
    1,609 ha reached on 14 Mar
    0.1 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2025
Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20

Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

The weather day by day

ECMWF ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, the standard reference for past weather, and the Canadian Fire Weather Index (the same system Copernicus uses), computed by WorldFires from that data. Days after the fire run until the first rain.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
14 Mar 36.6 °C 24 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
15 Mar 37.1 °C 18 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
16 Mar 38.4 °C 22 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
17 Mar 38.1 °C 24 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
18 Mar 38.1 °C 24 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
19 Mar 38.1 °C 20 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
20 Mar 37.3 °C 19 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 52
21 Mar 36.1 °C 28 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 56
22 Mar 37.2 °C 24 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
23 Mar 37.6 °C 23 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 51
24 Mar 37.6 °C 24 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
25 Mar 36.0 °C 29 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
26 Mar 36.2 °C 31 % 44 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 46
27 Mar 36.8 °C 24 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
28 Mar 37.7 °C 25 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
29 Mar 36.8 °C 29 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
30 Mar after 37.9 °C 29 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
31 Mar after 37.1 °C 35 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 50
1 Apr after 36.3 °C 34 % 50 km/h 0.5 mm Extreme 53
2 Apr after 37.9 °C 19 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 45
3 Apr after 39.3 °C 22 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
4 Apr after 39.2 °C 24 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Extreme 50
5 Apr after 37.5 °C 23 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
6 Apr after 36.4 °C 25 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 49
7 Apr after 38.0 °C 26 % 46 km/h 0.3 mm Extreme 51
8 Apr after 35.0 °C 32 % 36 km/h 0.4 mm High 37

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 46.2, a minimum humidity of 24% and 2 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 23.

FWI at the start 46.2
Minimum humidity 24 %
Days without rain 2
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Arismendi fire, April 2024
2,106 ha 7 days FWI 45.7 Min. humidity 23 % 68 km away, in 2024

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 5.3 mm on 17 Apr.

See its page Compare with this fire

What happened to them

7 days
median duration
2,106 ha
median area
100 %
went past 1,000 ha
4.8 mm
rain at the end (median; 16 of 23 had it)

It burned an area similar to its twins (1,598 ha against a median of 2,106 ha) and lasted 16 days, against 7 days.

In 7 of 23, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 4.8 mm.

This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it

How it ended

—first rain
—no rain in ten days
49km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 29 Mar, and not even 1 mm fell in the following ten days: it went out without rain. Twins with rain when they ended: 16 of 23, with a median of 4.8 mm.

Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

How a twin is chosen

  • Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
  • Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
  • Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
  • Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
  • They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

Before · 7 Mar 2023
After · 5 Apr 2023

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 24 March 2023 the air beside the fire reached 44 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 23: 1.5 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak44 µg/m³
Days over the guideline7 days
PM1063 µg/m³
Optical depth1.01
17 Mar20 Mar23 Mar26 Mar
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)

Detections table · 38Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.
Date and timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Venezuela

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Achaguas fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 14 March 2023 to 29 March 2023 (16 days). The perimeter dates it from 19 March 2023 to 24 March 2023.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 1,598 hectares (16.0 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Achaguas (1,609 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.4 °C, humidity dropped to 18 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 56, class Extreme.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Venezuela (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.
How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 23. Their median duration was 7 days and their median area 2,106 ha; 100 % went past 1,000 ha. In 7 of 23, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 4.8 mm.

Where to verify it

A satellite detection is not an official report. Final figures and the fire’s status are published by each country’s emergency service.

Emergency number: 911 · Emergency number and official warnings

Satellite cross-check

History of this page · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Last day with fire: 24 March 2023 → 29 March 2023.
  2. Start date: 19 March 2023 → 14 March 2023.

RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version

Does something look wrong on this page?

This page is built from satellite data and official records, and it sometimes gets things wrong: the wrong dates, the wrong town, two fires merged into one, or something that was not a wildfire at all. If you know this fire first-hand (you live nearby, saw it, fought it or reported on it), tell us what really happened and we will check it.

Report an error
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 911.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 19 March 2023 to 24 March 2023. 38 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology

Where this data comes from

The perimeter comes from the Copernicus Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS), which rebuilds it from MODIS and VIIRS heat detections and publishes it under CC BY 4.0. It is not measured on imagery as in Europe, so it is an estimate. Heat detections come from the VIIRS sensors aboard Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20, distributed by NASA FIRMS at 375 m resolution. Municipal boundaries come from geoBoundaries ADM2 (Open Data Commons Open Database License 1.0). The area per municipality is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ from each country’s official figure.