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Muñoz fire, 16 March 2018 Achaguas, Muñoz

Out · last detection 23 Mar 2018, 18:10 UTC

The fire started on 16 March 2018 in Muñoz, Venezuela, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,144 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 235th largest in Apure since 2016 (of 919 with a page). Number 29 in Venezuela in 2018, of 107.

Burnt area
3,144ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
16 Mar 2018 – 22 Mar 2018
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
16 Mar
2018
Heat detections
90
in a single hotspot: 143 MW
Danger at start
22
High · FWI index
Energy released
797MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

23 Mar 2018
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 16 Mar22 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

16181920212223

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
46km/h · peak gust
20%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 2.9 mm on 27 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. Achaguas 28,966 inhabitants
    2,359 ha reached on 12 Mar
    0.2 %
  2. Muñoz 27,542 inhabitants where it started
    806 ha reached on 10 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)
9 Mar 36.3 °C 29 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
10 Mar 36.1 °C 35 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
11 Mar 36.4 °C 30 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
12 Mar 37.3 °C 32 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
13 Mar 37.8 °C 28 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
14 Mar 38.5 °C 28 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
15 Mar 38.2 °C 23 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
16 Mar 37.6 °C 25 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
17 Mar 37.7 °C 27 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
18 Mar 38.5 °C 25 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
19 Mar 38.0 °C 25 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
20 Mar 38.1 °C 20 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
21 Mar 38.1 °C 31 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
22 Mar 36.4 °C 40 % 41 km/h 0.6 mm High 27
23 Mar after 37.9 °C 30 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
24 Mar after 37.6 °C 27 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
25 Mar after 38.2 °C 26 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
26 Mar after 38.4 °C 29 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
27 Mar after 37.8 °C 32 % 43 km/h 2.9 mm High 22

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 9 Mar 2018
After · 29 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 · 90Every 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 16 March 2018 and 22 March 2018: 7 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 3,144 hectares (31.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Achaguas (2,359 ha, 0.2 %); Muñoz (806 ha, 0.1 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.5 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 46 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.