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VE · Venezuela · →

Araure fire, March 2020 Araure, Ospino

Out · last detection 22 Mar 2020, 18:23 UTC

The fire started on 14 March 2020 in Araure, Venezuela, and satellites saw it burning for 8 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,571 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 29th largest in Portuguesa since 2016 (of 36 with a page). Number 364 in Venezuela in 2020, of 402.

Burnt area
1,571ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
8days
14 Mar 2020 – 21 Mar 2020
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
14 Mar
2020
Heat detections
46
in a single hotspot: 39 MW
Danger at start
44
Very high · FWI index
Energy released
251MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

22 Mar 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Mar21 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

1415161718192122

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

The weather it burned in

35°high
47km/h · peak gust
20%lowest humidity

It had gone 24 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Araure 133,500 inhabitants where it started
    1,501 ha reached on 14 Mar
    2.0 %
  2. Ospino 47,644 inhabitants
    79 ha reached on 17 Mar
    0.0 %

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

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 35.0 °C 23 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
15 Mar 34.1 °C 23 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
16 Mar 34.8 °C 21 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
17 Mar 34.9 °C 21 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
18 Mar 33.7 °C 24 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
19 Mar 34.5 °C 23 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
20 Mar 33.8 °C 22 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
21 Mar 34.8 °C 20 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
22 Mar after 34.3 °C 21 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
23 Mar after 33.2 °C 29 % 34 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 39
24 Mar after 34.4 °C 29 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
25 Mar after 33.7 °C 31 % 28 km/h 0.2 mm High 37
26 Mar after 34.6 °C 28 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
27 Mar after 36.5 °C 19 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 48
28 Mar after 34.9 °C 16 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
29 Mar after 34.2 °C 23 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
30 Mar after 36.0 °C 22 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 46
31 Mar after 31.5 °C 30 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 37

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 7 Mar 2020
After · 28 Mar 2020

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

Detections table · 46Every 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 Araure fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 14 March 2020 and 21 March 2020: 8 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 1,571 hectares (15.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Araure (1,501 ha, 2.0 %); Ospino (79 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.0 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 47 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 47, class Very high.
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.

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

Satellite cross-check

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.

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.