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VE · Venezuela · →

Muñoz fire, 12 March 2022 Muñoz

Out · last detection 16 Mar 2022, 06:03 UTC

The fire started on 12 March 2022 in Muñoz, Venezuela, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,618 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 784th largest in Apure since 2016 (of 919 with a page). Number 181 in Venezuela in 2022, of 205.

Burnt area
1,618ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
5days
12 Mar 2022 – 16 Mar 2022
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
12 Mar
2022
Heat detections
52
in a single hotspot: 58 MW
Danger at start
19
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
949MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

16 Mar 2022
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 12 Mar16 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

121516

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

The weather it burned in

35°high
40km/h · peak gust
38%lowest humidity

It had gone 0 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

83% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,351 ha in 2020.

What happened to each town

  1. Muñoz 27,542 inhabitants where it started
    1,627 ha reached on 12 Mar
    0.2 %

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)
12 Mar 35.2 °C 42 % 40 km/h 0.8 mm Moderate 19
13 Mar 34.3 °C 44 % 35 km/h 0.6 mm Moderate 20
14 Mar 33.4 °C 44 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
15 Mar 34.7 °C 38 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
16 Mar 34.9 °C 42 % 40 km/h 0.1 mm High 26
17 Mar after 35.5 °C 41 % 41 km/h 0.3 mm High 24
18 Mar after 34.7 °C 35 % 38 km/h 0.1 mm High 28
19 Mar after 35.9 °C 35 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
20 Mar after 35.9 °C 36 % 44 km/h 0.2 mm High 31
21 Mar after 35.9 °C 37 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
22 Mar after 34.9 °C 36 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
23 Mar after 36.0 °C 33 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
24 Mar after 36.1 °C 35 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
25 Mar after 36.1 °C 39 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
26 Mar after 36.4 °C 37 % 38 km/h 0.1 mm High 32

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 5 Mar 2022
After · 23 Mar 2022

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 · 52Every 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 12 March 2022 and 16 March 2022: 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 1,618 hectares (16.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Muñoz (1,627 ha, 0.2 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.2 °C, humidity dropped to 38 % and gusts hit 40 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 26, 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.

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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.