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Muñoz fire, 11 February 2024 Muñoz, Rómulo Gallegos

Out · last detection 16 Feb 2024, 17:46 UTC

The fire started on 11 February 2024 in Muñoz, Venezuela, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,055 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 257th largest in Apure since 2016 (of 919 with a page). Number 118 in Venezuela in 2024, of 482.

Burnt area
3,055ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
6days
11 Feb 2024 – 16 Feb 2024
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
11 Feb
2024
Heat detections
74
in a single hotspot: 104 MW
Danger at start
18
Moderate · FWI index
Energy released
1.1GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

16 Feb 2024
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 11 Feb16 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

111213141516

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

The weather it burned in

37°high
41km/h · peak gust
35%lowest humidity

It had gone 2 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

81% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 613 ha in 2016, 372 ha in 2018, 2,303 ha in 2020, 972 ha in 2022, 1,265 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,486 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

  1. Muñoz 27,542 inhabitants where it started
    3,065 ha reached on 11 Feb
    0.4 %
  2. Rómulo Gallegos 24,418 inhabitants
    8 ha reached on 13 Feb
    0.0 %

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)
11 Feb 36.4 °C 35 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 18
12 Feb 35.3 °C 37 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 19
13 Feb 35.7 °C 38 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
14 Feb 36.1 °C 43 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 20
15 Feb 37.1 °C 42 % 34 km/h 0.2 mm Moderate 18
16 Feb 35.9 °C 37 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
17 Feb after 36.2 °C 36 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
18 Feb after 36.5 °C 33 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
19 Feb after 36.7 °C 30 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
20 Feb after 37.3 °C 25 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
21 Feb after 36.5 °C 33 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
22 Feb after 37.0 °C 26 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
23 Feb after 36.6 °C 29 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
24 Feb after 36.7 °C 29 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
25 Feb after 37.0 °C 33 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
26 Feb after 34.7 °C 44 % 42 km/h 0.1 mm High 29

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 4 Feb 2024
After · 23 Feb 2024

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 · Copernicus

On 16 February 2024 the air beside the fire reached 80 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 49: 3.3 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak80 µg/m³
Days over the guideline9 days
PM10112 µg/m³
Optical depth0.59
910111213141516171819
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

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 · 74Every 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 11 February 2024 and 16 February 2024: 6 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 3,055 hectares (30.6 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Muñoz (3,065 ha, 0.4 %); Rómulo Gallegos (8 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 37.1 °C, humidity dropped to 35 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 21, class Moderate.
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
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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.