Baralt fire, March 2020 Baralt
The fire started on 19 March 2020 in Baralt, Venezuela, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,689 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 45th largest in Zulia since 2016 (of 135 with a page). Number 118 in Venezuela in 2020, of 402.
- Burnt area
- 2,689ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 6days
- 19 Mar 2020 – 24 Mar 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 19 Mar
- 2020
- Heat detections
- 65
- in a single hotspot: 133 MW
- Danger at start
- 15
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 590MW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 3.4 mm on 25 Mar.
This area had burned before
84% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,414 ha in 2016. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,264 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
Baralt where it started2,706 ha reached on 18 Mar1.4 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 Mar | 28.5 °C | 48 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 19 Mar | 28.6 °C | 51 % | 33 km/h | 0.8 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 20 Mar | 28.3 °C | 55 % | 28 km/h | 1.8 mm | Very low 5 |
| 21 Mar | 27.6 °C | 53 % | 33 km/h | 1.1 mm | Low 7 |
| 22 Mar | 28.4 °C | 53 % | 28 km/h | 0.6 mm | Low 10 |
| 23 Mar | 27.7 °C | 62 % | 31 km/h | 1.2 mm | Low 6 |
| 24 Mar | 28.8 °C | 61 % | 27 km/h | 2.7 mm | Very low 3 |
| 25 Mar after | 27.6 °C | 66 % | 27 km/h | 3.4 mm | Very low 2 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · 65Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 3,848 haBaralt22 March 2016 · 11 days · 1 km away
- 1,866 haBaralt8 February 2020 · 7 days · 4 km away
- 3,232 haBaralt5 February 2020 · 9 days · 7 km away
- 2,713 haValmore RodríguezMarch 2016 · 10 days · 35 km away
- 2,146 haValmore RodríguezFebruary 2020 · 9 days · 35 km away
- 2,187 haValmore Rodríguez14 March 2020 · 10 days · 37 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Baralt fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 19 March 2020 and 24 March 2020: 6 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 2,689 hectares (26.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Baralt (2,706 ha, 1.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 28.8 °C, humidity dropped to 48 % and gusts hit 38 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 15, class Moderate.
- 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
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.