Muñoz fire, 6 February 2021 Muñoz
The fire started on 6 February 2021 in Muñoz, Venezuela, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,806 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 638th largest in Apure since 2016 (of 919 with a page). Number 26 in Venezuela in 2021, of 47.
- Burnt area
- 1,806ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 5days
- 6 Feb 2021 – 10 Feb 2021
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 6 Feb
- 2021
- Heat detections
- 34
- in a single hotspot: 48 MW
- Danger at start
- 25
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 216MW
- 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 12 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
97% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,195 ha in 2016, 876 ha in 2017, 343 ha in 2018, 771 ha in 2020. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,744 ha that had burned before.
- 1,076 ha Muñoz fire, January 2016 4,398 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 876 ha Muñoz fire, January 2017 2,362 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 698 ha Muñoz fire, April 2020 2,373 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 73 ha Muñoz fire, January 2020 1,623 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 48 ha Muñoz fire, January 2018 1,521 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
1,819 ha reached on 30 Jan0.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 Feb | 34.8 °C | 35 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 7 Feb | 35.4 °C | 31 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 8 Feb | 35.6 °C | 34 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 9 Feb | 35.3 °C | 34 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 10 Feb | 36.3 °C | 25 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 11 Feb after | 36.2 °C | 22 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 12 Feb after | 36.2 °C | 29 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 13 Feb after | 36.0 °C | 33 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 14 Feb after | 36.4 °C | 29 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 15 Feb after | 36.7 °C | 26 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 16 Feb after | 35.1 °C | 31 % | 49 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 17 Feb after | 34.6 °C | 27 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 18 Feb after | 35.9 °C | 24 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 19 Feb after | 33.7 °C | 34 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 20 Feb after | 35.6 °C | 24 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
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 · 34Every 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 6 February 2021 and 10 February 2021: 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 1,806 hectares (18.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Muñoz (1,819 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.3 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % 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.
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.