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VE · Venezuela · →

Cabimas fire, March 2020 Cabimas, Miranda

Out · last detection 5 Mar 2020, 05:56 UTC

The fire started on 2 March 2020 in Cabimas, Venezuela, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,747 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 106th largest in Zulia since 2016 (of 135 with a page). Number 297 in Venezuela in 2020, of 402.

The power measured by the satellite is low (15.5 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
1,747ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
4days
2 Mar 2020 – 5 Mar 2020
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
2 Mar
2020
Heat detections
42
in a single hotspot: 16 MW
Danger at start
36
High · FWI index
Energy released
167MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

5 Mar 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 2 Mar5 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

2345

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

The weather it burned in

40°high
37km/h · peak gust
21%lowest humidity

It had gone 33 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. Cabimas 263,056 inhabitants where it started
    1,631 ha reached on 2 Mar
    2.8 %
  2. Miranda 97,463 inhabitants
    127 ha reached on 4 Mar
    0.1 %

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)
2 Mar 35.9 °C 31 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
3 Mar 38.5 °C 24 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
4 Mar 38.1 °C 22 % 28 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
5 Mar 39.7 °C 21 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
6 Mar after 37.4 °C 27 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
7 Mar after 35.7 °C 34 % 41 km/h 0.3 mm Very high 40
8 Mar after 36.9 °C 32 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
9 Mar after 36.6 °C 28 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
10 Mar after 35.7 °C 34 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
11 Mar after 35.3 °C 38 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
12 Mar after 35.4 °C 29 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
13 Mar after 36.9 °C 34 % 36 km/h 0.5 mm High 36
14 Mar after 35.5 °C 31 % 45 km/h 0.7 mm High 36
15 Mar after 37.1 °C 25 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 38

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 24 Feb 2020
After · 12 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 · 42Every 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 Cabimas fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 2 March 2020 and 5 March 2020: 4 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 1,747 hectares (17.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Cabimas (1,631 ha, 2.8 %); Miranda (127 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 39.7 °C, humidity dropped to 21 % and gusts hit 37 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 41, 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.