Burned area
satellite only24,750ha
Perimeter published by GWIS (Copernicus).
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus)
- Date
- 2 Feb 2022 – 22 Feb 2022
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page to compare it with.
VE · Venezuela · –
Maturín fire, 2 February 2022 Maturín, Independencia
Out · last detection 21 Feb 2022, 17:39 UTC
The fire started on 2 February 2022 in Maturín, Venezuela, and satellites saw it burning for 21 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 24,750 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 3th largest in Monagas since 2016 (of 142 with a page). The largest in Venezuela in 2022, of 205.
Use this data
Compare with…
Use this data
Fire page data · version 2026-10-25matches the official recordwith caveatssatellite onlymodel
When copying, the sentence is
Tick the figures you want: they make up the lede and the CSV.
Duration by satellite
satellite only21days
2 Feb 2022 to 22 Feb 2022: first and last day with fire on the page.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- last detection: 21 Feb 2022, 17:39 UTC
+− cross-check
Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.
Start
satellite only2 Feb 2022
First day with fire seen by the satellites or the perimeter.
- Source
- GWIS (Copernicus) · NASA FIRMS · VIIRS
- Date
- 2 Feb 2022
+− cross-check
No official record is matched to this page, so the alert time and the cause are not known here.
Hotspots
satellite only1,153
VIIRS detections at 375 m. Most intense hotspot: 156 MW.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (Suomi NPP)
- Date
- 2 Feb 2022 – 22 Feb 2022
+− cross-check
There is no official record to compare with. Each hotspot is a pixel detected in one satellite pass, not a separate fire.
The worst day
satellite only2,767MW
Total radiative power on 16 February 2022; hotspots that day: 139.
- Source
- NASA FIRMS · VIIRS (FRP)
- Date
- 16 Feb 2022
+− cross-check
Fire radiative power (FRP) measures the energy the fire gives off when the satellite passes. Added up by day, it compares intensity, not area.
Danger at the start
model25.7FWI · high
Fire Weather Index (Canadian system) computed by WorldFires for the day the fire started. Consecutive days without rain before: 10.
- Source
- WorldFires calculation (Canadian FWI system)
- Date
- 2 Feb 2022, local noon
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
This is an index computed from weather model data, not a measurement of the fire nor an official warning. Danger warnings are issued by each country’s authority. Emergency number and official warnings
Weather during the fire
model34.0°C · 35% RH
High of 34.0 °C and minimum humidity of 35% on 20 February 2022; gusts of 48 km/h on 17 February 2022.
- Source
- weather model at the fire’s grid cell
- Date
- 2 Feb 2022 – 22 Feb 2022
- Model
- ERA5 0,25° (ECMWF · Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com
+− cross-check
These are model values for a cell of about 25 km, not from a weather station: they may differ from what was measured on the ground.
This page’s change log has been kept since 24 October 2026: every night what it publishes is compared and the difference is logged. Anything earlier is reconstructed from each source’s date and marked as reconstructed.
Show
-
· reconstructed weatherWeather and FWI computed from the ERA5 reanalysis
-
logStart date: 9 February 2022 → 2 February 2022.
-
· reconstructed GHSLPopulation and built-up area computed
What was saved on 25 October 2026
Every night a snapshot of what the page shows is saved. If anything changes, it appears in the list as a log entry.
- Area
- 24,750 ha
- Dates
- 2 Feb 2022 – 22 Feb 2022
- Name
- Maturín
- Official record
- —
Versioned permanent link
https://worldfires.org/en/fire/maturin-2022-02?v=2026-10-25A version keeps the area, dates, name and official record; the area as it was logged (changes under 2% are not logged). The map, hotspots and weather always show today’s data.
Citation
A lede of about 60 words figures only, no adjectives
CSV for this fire maturin-2022-02.csv · daily, no individual hotspots
| fecha | focos_viirs | frp_mw | tmax_c | tmin_c | hr_min_pct | viento_max_kmh | racha_max_kmh | precip_mm | fwi | clase_fwi | dentro_del_incendio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022-02-02 | 1 | 1 | 32.6 | 22.6 | 45 | 16.1 | 38.2 | 0.3 | 25.7 | alto | 1 |
| 2022-02-03 | 1 | 1 | 32.3 | 22.7 | 45 | 15.8 | 38.9 | 0.3 | 25.6 | alto | 1 |
| 2022-02-04 | 10 | 96 | 32.1 | 22.4 | 43 | 15.9 | 38.5 | 0.1 | 26.2 | alto | 1 |
| 2022-02-05 | 4 | 16 | 31.1 | 21.1 | 43 | 15.8 | 35.6 | 0 | 24.8 | alto | 1 |
| 2022-02-06 | 2 | 8 | 33 | 23 | 49 | 16.5 | 34.9 | 1.6 | 25.1 | alto | 1 |
| 2022-02-07 | 1 | 6 | 30.8 | 23.4 | 54 | 15.5 | 36 | 1.2 | 13.8 | moderado | 1 |
| 2022-02-08 | 0 | 0 | 32.4 | 22.7 | 51 | 16.9 | 36 | 1.5 | 17.2 | moderado | 1 |
| 2022-02-09 | 9 | 67 | 31.6 | 23.3 | 46 | 15 | 33.8 | 0.1 | 21 | moderado | 1 |
| 2022-02-10 | 44 | 1,023 | 31.3 | 21.6 | 45 | 16.9 | 37.8 | 0.7 | 24 | alto | 1 |
| 2022-02-11 | 65 | 1,019 | 30 | 22.5 | 52 | 19.2 | 41.8 | 0.7 | 24.5 | alto | 1 |
| 2022-02-12 | 68 | 117 | 29.2 | 22.2 | 55 | 18.4 | 40.7 | 0.6 | 23.6 | alto | 1 |
| 2022-02-13 | 82 | 310 | 31.3 | 20.7 | 40 | 16.9 | 39.2 | 0 | 30.9 | alto | 1 |
| 2022-02-14 | 107 | 511 | 33.3 | 21.6 | 37 | 16.8 | 39.2 | 0 | 30.6 | alto | 1 |
| 2022-02-15 | 139 | 1,644 | 32.2 | 22.5 | 46 | 17.3 | 42.8 | 0.9 | 29.1 | alto | 1 |
| 2022-02-16 | 139 | 2,767 | 31.3 | 22.3 | 50 | 19.2 | 47.9 | 0.8 | 21.6 | alto | 1 |
| 2022-02-17 | 37 | 909 | 30.2 | 22.3 | 49 | 20.9 | 48.2 | 0.7 | 31 | alto | 1 |
| 2022-02-18 | 89 | 479 | 31.4 | 20.6 | 44 | 17.8 | 41.4 | 0.1 | 30.7 | alto | 1 |
| 2022-02-19 | 143 | 1,762 | 33.1 | 21.2 | 35 | 17.7 | 38.2 | 0.3 | 30.5 | alto | 1 |
| 2022-02-20 | 144 | 2,071 | 34 | 21.1 | 35 | 17.1 | 37.4 | 0 | 30.4 | alto | 1 |
| 2022-02-21 | 68 | 402 | 32.8 | 22.6 | 44 | 18.9 | 42.5 | 0.1 | 31.9 | alto | 1 |
| 2022-02-22 | 0 | 0 | 31.6 | 23.4 | 52 | 17.1 | 42.8 | 2.4 | 26.2 | alto | 1 |
| 2022-02-23 | 0 | 0 | 30.3 | 22.6 | 57 | 17.7 | 37.8 | 4.1 | 7.8 | bajo | 0 |
It is generated in your browser from this page’s data: one file per fire, aggregated by day and without individual hotspots.
Live widget for your story
It updates itself while the fire is still active and links to this page. Free, with the attribution shown at the bottom.
Sources for this page: GWIS (Copernicus), NASA FIRMS (VIIRS), ERA5 (ECMWF/Copernicus C3S) · Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0), GHSL (JRC). Open-Meteo.com · How we build fire pages: methodology
- Burnt area
- 24,750ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 21days
- 2 Feb 2022 – 22 Feb 2022
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 2 Feb
- 2022
- Heat detections
- 1,153
- in a single hotspot: 156 MW
- Danger at start
- 26
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 695MW
- detected power per day, on average
Where it burned
HOTSPOTS BY DAY
2 Feb22 Feb
21 Feb 2022
How it evolved, day by day
2 Feb
6 Feb
11 Feb
16 Feb
19 Feb
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
34°high
48km/h · peak gust
35%lowest humidity
It had gone 10 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.1 mm on 23 Feb.
This area had burned before
70% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 3,053 ha in 2016, 2,984 ha in 2018, 15,467 ha in 2019, 1,008 ha in 2020, 608 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 17,260 ha that had burned before.
- 13,993 ha Independencia fire, March 2019 28,488 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2,380 ha Maturín fire, March 2016 8,633 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,465 ha Maturín fire, March 2018 3,160 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 949 ha Maturín fire, March 2020 2,358 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 673 ha Maturín fire, April 2016 9,409 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 608 ha Maturín fire, May 2021 1,832 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 604 ha Maturín fire, March 2019 2,849 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
12,928 ha reached on 2 Feb1.0 %
-
Independencia 30,016 inhabitants11,968 ha reached on 4 Feb1.7 %
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 2020Built-up area< 0.1 ha
Residents< 20
Inside the perimeter there was no noticeable built-up land and almost nobody lived there (GHSL 2020, 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.
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 Feb | 32.6 °C | 45 % | 38 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 26 |
| 3 Feb | 32.3 °C | 45 % | 39 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 26 |
| 4 Feb | 32.1 °C | 43 % | 38 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 26 |
| 5 Feb | 31.1 °C | 43 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 6 Feb | 33.0 °C | 49 % | 35 km/h | 1.6 mm | High 25 |
| 7 Feb | 30.8 °C | 54 % | 36 km/h | 1.2 mm | Moderate 14 |
| 8 Feb | 32.4 °C | 51 % | 36 km/h | 1.5 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 9 Feb | 31.6 °C | 46 % | 34 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 10 Feb | 31.3 °C | 45 % | 38 km/h | 0.7 mm | High 24 |
| 11 Feb | 30.0 °C | 52 % | 42 km/h | 0.7 mm | High 24 |
| 12 Feb | 29.2 °C | 55 % | 41 km/h | 0.6 mm | High 24 |
| 13 Feb | 31.3 °C | 40 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 14 Feb | 33.3 °C | 37 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 15 Feb | 32.2 °C | 46 % | 43 km/h | 0.9 mm | High 29 |
| 16 Feb | 31.3 °C | 50 % | 48 km/h | 0.8 mm | High 22 |
| 17 Feb | 30.2 °C | 49 % | 48 km/h | 0.7 mm | High 31 |
| 18 Feb | 31.4 °C | 44 % | 41 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 31 |
| 19 Feb | 33.1 °C | 35 % | 38 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 30 |
| 20 Feb | 34.0 °C | 35 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 21 Feb | 32.8 °C | 44 % | 42 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 32 |
| 22 Feb | 31.6 °C | 52 % | 43 km/h | 2.4 mm | High 26 |
| 23 Feb after | 30.3 °C | 57 % | 38 km/h | 4.1 mm | Low 8 |
Its twins: fires that started in the same weather
It started with an FWI of 25.7, a minimum humidity of 45% and 10 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 32.
FWI at the start
25.7
Minimum humidity
45 %
Days without rain
10
this fire
chosen twins
rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar
Outlines of the closest twins
This fire · Maturín fire, 2 February 2022
24,750 ha
21 days
FWI 25.7
Min. humidity 45 %
Independencia fire, March 2023
1,501 ha
13 days
FWI 26.3
Min. humidity 43 %
39 km away, in 2023
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Sotillo fire, December 2023
1,795 ha
3 days
FWI 27.0
Min. humidity 43 %
80 km away, in 2023
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Uracoa fire, February 2019
4,631 ha
17 days
FWI 29.4
Min. humidity 45 %
80 km away, in 2019
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Maturín fire, February 2024
5,397 ha
3 days
FWI 24.1
Min. humidity 43 %
45 km away, in 2024
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.
Maturín fire, February 2024
2,339 ha
12 days
FWI 29.5
Min. humidity 45 %
81 km away, in 2024
First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: 1.1 mm on 24 Feb.
What happened to them
- 6 days
- median duration
- 1,838 ha
- median area
- 100 %
- went past 1,000 ha
- 2.0 mm
- rain at the end (median; 22 of 32 had it)
It was 13.5 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 21 days, against 6 days.
None of its 32 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 10 of 32, 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 2.0 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
4.1 mmfirst rain
23 Febthe day after it ended
48km/h · max. gust
It was considered over on 22 Feb, and on 23 Feb 4.1 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 22 of 32, with a median of 2.0 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.
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
↔
Before · 26 Jan 2022
After · 1 Mar 2022
Sentinel-2 did not pass over on that day. Try another date, or use false colour, which is daily.
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 · 1,153Every 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 time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 36,872 haMaturín3 March 2023 · 29 days · 1 km away
- 14,191 haMaturín17 February 2026 · 21 days · 3 km away
- 28,488 haIndependencia1 March 2019 · 25 days · 10 km away
- 18,037 haIndependencia17 February 2024 · 24 days · 10 km away
- 16,207 haIndependencia13 March 2018 · 28 days · 38 km away
- 20,000 haMaturín10 April 2018 · 6 days · 40 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Maturín fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 2 February 2022 to 22 February 2022 (21 days). The perimeter dates it from 9 February 2022 to 22 February 2022.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 24,750 hectares (247.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Maturín (12,928 ha, 1.0 %); Independencia (11,968 ha, 1.7 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 34.0 °C, humidity dropped to 35 % and gusts hit 48 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 32, class 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.
- 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: 32. Their median duration was 6 days and their median area 1,838 ha; 100 % went past 1,000 ha. None of its 32 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 10 of 32, 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 2.0 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 · 1 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
- Start date: 9 February 2022 → 2 February 2022.
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
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 9 February 2022 to 22 February 2022. 1,153 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 2020, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.
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.