Muñoz fire, 2 January 2022 Muñoz
The fire started on 2 January 2022 in Muñoz, Venezuela, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,891 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 163th largest in Apure since 2016 (of 919 with a page). Number 29 in Venezuela in 2022, of 205.
- Burnt area
- 3,891ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 10days
- 2 Jan 2022 – 11 Jan 2022
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 2 Jan
- 2022
- Heat detections
- 143
- in a single hotspot: 53 MW
- Danger at start
- 24
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.4GW
- 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 30 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 4.5 mm on 16 Jan.
This area had burned before
99% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,613 ha in 2016, 6 ha in 2017, 2,028 ha in 2018, 1,871 ha in 2019, 1,266 ha in 2020, 1,149 ha in 2021. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,839 ha that had burned before.
- 2,158 ha Muñoz fire, January 2016 4,398 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,265 ha Muñoz fire, April 2020 2,373 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 851 ha Muñoz fire, January 2018 1,911 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 354 ha Muñoz fire, December 2019 1,628 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 345 ha Muñoz fire, January 2019 1,504 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 319 ha Muñoz fire, February 2021 1,806 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 6 ha Muñoz fire, January 2017 2,362 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 2 ha Muñoz fire, January 2020 1,623 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
3,919 ha reached on 2 Jan0.5 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 Jan | 34.1 °C | 33 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 3 Jan | 33.1 °C | 40 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 4 Jan | 34.6 °C | 38 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 25 |
| 5 Jan | 33.4 °C | 41 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 6 Jan | 33.8 °C | 32 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 7 Jan | 34.7 °C | 37 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 8 Jan | 33.5 °C | 41 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 9 Jan | 33.6 °C | 36 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 10 Jan | 33.9 °C | 35 % | 35 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 11 Jan | 32.3 °C | 44 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 12 Jan after | 33.6 °C | 43 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 13 Jan after | 34.5 °C | 42 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 14 Jan after | 34.5 °C | 41 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 15 Jan after | 35.7 °C | 37 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 16 Jan after | 34.2 °C | 46 % | 32 km/h | 4.5 mm | Low 7 |
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 · 143Every 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 2 January 2022 and 11 January 2022: 10 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 3,891 hectares (38.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Muñoz (3,919 ha, 0.5 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 34.7 °C, humidity dropped to 32 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 28, 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.