Skip to content
worldfires
VE · Venezuela · →

Muñoz fire, February 2018 Muñoz, Rómulo Gallegos

Out · last detection 13 Feb 2018, 18:23 UTC

The fire started on 9 February 2018 in Muñoz, Venezuela, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,566 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 835th largest in Apure since 2016 (of 919 with a page). Number 96 in Venezuela in 2018, of 107.

Burnt area
1,566ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
9 Feb 2018 – 13 Feb 2018
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
9 Feb
2018
Heat detections
74
in a single hotspot: 104 MW
Danger at start
31
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.4GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

13 Feb 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 9 Feb13 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

910111213

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
54km/h · peak gust
22%lowest humidity

It had gone 20 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

46% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 726 ha in 2016.

What happened to each town

  1. Muñoz 27,542 inhabitants where it started
    1,472 ha reached on 8 Feb
    0.2 %
  2. Rómulo Gallegos 24,418 inhabitants
    102 ha
    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)
8 Feb 35.9 °C 28 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
9 Feb 36.2 °C 29 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
10 Feb 35.7 °C 31 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
11 Feb 35.6 °C 33 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
12 Feb 36.0 °C 30 % 54 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
13 Feb 35.2 °C 22 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
14 Feb after 35.7 °C 28 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
15 Feb after 34.2 °C 38 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
16 Feb after 34.9 °C 39 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
17 Feb after 34.8 °C 36 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
18 Feb after 35.7 °C 27 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
19 Feb after 35.3 °C 25 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
20 Feb after 35.1 °C 28 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
21 Feb after 36.0 °C 24 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
22 Feb after 34.7 °C 31 % 51 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
23 Feb after 35.7 °C 29 % 53 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 2 Feb 2018
After · 20 Feb 2018

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 · 74Every 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 Muñoz fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 9 February 2018 and 13 February 2018: 5 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 1,566 hectares (15.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Muñoz (1,472 ha, 0.2 %); Rómulo Gallegos (102 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.2 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 54 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 39, 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.