Muñoz fire, December 2019 Muñoz
The fire started on 31 December 2019 in Muñoz, Venezuela, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,628 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 773th largest in Apure since 2016 (of 919 with a page). Number 244 in Venezuela in 2019, of 296.
- Burnt area
- 1,628ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 7days
- 31 Dec 2019 – 6 Jan 2020
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 31 Dec
- 2019
- Heat detections
- 43
- in a single hotspot: 66 MW
- Danger at start
- 24
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 451MW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 10 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
77% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,145 ha in 2016, 585 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,253 ha that had burned before.
- 350 ha Muñoz fire, January 2016 4,398 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 138 ha Muñoz fire, January 2018 1,521 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 100 ha Muñoz fire, January 2018 1,911 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
1,640 ha reached on 25 Dec0.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 31 Dec | 36.2 °C | 27 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 1 Jan | 35.5 °C | 33 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 2 Jan | 35.4 °C | 27 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 3 Jan | 35.2 °C | 29 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 4 Jan | 35.2 °C | 33 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 5 Jan | 36.0 °C | 28 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 6 Jan | 35.5 °C | 33 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 7 Jan after | 36.4 °C | 30 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 8 Jan after | 36.4 °C | 29 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 9 Jan after | 34.1 °C | 37 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 10 Jan after | 34.8 °C | 31 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 11 Jan after | 35.7 °C | 27 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 12 Jan after | 34.6 °C | 33 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 13 Jan after | 34.6 °C | 32 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 14 Jan after | 35.5 °C | 33 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 15 Jan after | 35.7 °C | 39 % | 41 km/h | 0.7 mm | High 23 |
| 16 Jan after | 34.9 °C | 44 % | 37 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 25 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
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 · 43Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Muñoz fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 31 December 2019 and 6 January 2020: 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 1,628 hectares (16.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Muñoz (1,640 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.2 °C, humidity dropped to 27 % and gusts hit 42 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 30, 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
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.