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VE · Venezuela · →

Muñoz fire, 20 March 2018 Muñoz, Páez

Out · last detection 21 Mar 2018, 18:48 UTC

The fire started on 20 March 2018 in Muñoz, Venezuela, and satellites saw it burning for 2 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,451 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 387th largest in Apure since 2016 (of 919 with a page). Number 43 in Venezuela in 2018, of 107.

Burnt area
2,451ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
2days
20 Mar 2018 – 21 Mar 2018
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
20 Mar
2018
Heat detections
54
in a single hotspot: 139 MW
Danger at start
30
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

21 Mar 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 20 Mar21 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

2021

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
40km/h · peak gust
23%lowest humidity

It had gone 8 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 6.6 mm on 22 Mar.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

  1. Muñoz 27,542 inhabitants where it started
    2,009 ha reached on 20 Mar
    0.3 %
  2. Páez
    458 ha reached on 21 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)
17 Mar 36.8 °C 29 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
18 Mar 37.6 °C 27 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
19 Mar 36.7 °C 30 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
20 Mar 37.0 °C 23 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
21 Mar 37.0 °C 33 % 35 km/h 0.2 mm High 34
22 Mar after 35.2 °C 46 % 39 km/h 6.6 mm Very low 5

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 13 Mar 2018
After · 28 Mar 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 · 54Every 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 20 March 2018 and 21 March 2018: 2 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 2,451 hectares (24.5 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Muñoz (2,009 ha, 0.3 %); Páez (458 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.6 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 34, 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.

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.