Muñoz fire, 18 February 2023 Muñoz
The fire started on 18 February 2023 in Muñoz, Venezuela, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,514 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 362th largest in Apure since 2016 (of 919 with a page). Number 62 in Venezuela in 2023, of 193.
- Burnt area
- 2,514ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 4days
- 18 Feb 2023 – 21 Feb 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 18 Feb
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 78
- in a single hotspot: 75 MW
- Danger at start
- 36
- 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 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
91% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 19 ha in 2016, 6 ha in 2017, 153 ha in 2018, 2,168 ha in 2019, 440 ha in 2020, 657 ha in 2021, 2,316 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,291 ha that had burned before.
- 1,313 ha Muñoz fire, January 2022 1,869 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,003 ha Muñoz fire, March 2022 3,411 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 657 ha Muñoz fire, February 2021 1,685 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 440 ha Muñoz fire, February 2020 2,123 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 153 ha Muñoz fire, March 2018 3,201 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 19 ha Muñoz fire, January 2016 1,605 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
2,531 ha reached on 18 Feb0.3 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 Feb | 34.8 °C | 23 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 19 Feb | 35.5 °C | 29 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 20 Feb | 34.3 °C | 30 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 21 Feb | 35.2 °C | 30 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 22 Feb after | 34.7 °C | 31 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 38 |
| 23 Feb after | 34.9 °C | 32 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 24 Feb after | 35.1 °C | 30 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 25 Feb after | 36.1 °C | 30 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 26 Feb after | 35.4 °C | 32 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 27 Feb after | 35.8 °C | 36 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 28 Feb after | 36.2 °C | 40 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 1 Mar after | 35.9 °C | 37 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 2 Mar after | 35.2 °C | 39 % | 37 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 33 |
| 3 Mar after | 35.2 °C | 40 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
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.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 24 February 2023 the air beside the fire reached 28 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 78Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 5,824 haMuñozFebruary 2017 · 6 days · 9 km away
- 6,256 haMuñoz6 January 2025 · 10 days · 27 km away
- 8,088 haAchaguas20 March 2020 · 12 days · 36 km away
- 6,721 haAchaguas16 March 2026 · 12 days · 37 km away
- 37,402 haAchaguas22 February 2026 · 35 days · 38 km away
- 6,438 haMuñoz20 March 2020 · 11 days · 39 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Muñoz fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 18 February 2023 and 21 February 2023: 4 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 2,514 hectares (25.1 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Muñoz (2,531 ha, 0.3 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 35.5 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 36, 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.