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VE · Venezuela · →

Muñoz fire, 9 February 2026 Muñoz

Out · last detection 17 Feb 2026, 17:27 UTC

The fire started on 9 February 2026 in Muñoz, Venezuela, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,077 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 149th largest in Apure since 2016 (of 919 with a page). Number 75 in Venezuela in 2026, of 396.

The power measured by the satellite is low (14.0 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
4,077ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
9 Feb 2026 – 17 Feb 2026
Municipalities hit
1
municipalities
Started on
9 Feb
2026
Heat detections
85
in a single hotspot: 14 MW
Danger at start
32
High · FWI index
Energy released
375MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

17 Feb 2026
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 9 Feb17 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

91112131417

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

The weather it burned in

36°high
41km/h · peak gust
24%lowest humidity

It had gone 7 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

42% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,725 ha in 2024.

What happened to each town

  1. Muñoz 27,542 inhabitants where it started
    4,104 ha reached on 9 Feb
    0.5 %

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)
9 Feb 34.8 °C 32 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
10 Feb 35.8 °C 34 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
11 Feb 35.1 °C 34 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
12 Feb 36.1 °C 24 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
13 Feb 36.4 °C 34 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
14 Feb 34.6 °C 41 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
15 Feb 33.1 °C 46 % 29 km/h 1.6 mm Moderate 11
16 Feb 34.8 °C 34 % 35 km/h 0.1 mm High 28
17 Feb 35.6 °C 33 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
18 Feb after 34.1 °C 44 % 24 km/h 0.4 mm High 24
19 Feb after 34.1 °C 43 % 35 km/h 0.1 mm High 29
20 Feb after 33.4 °C 44 % 37 km/h 0.4 mm High 31
21 Feb after 35.4 °C 35 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
22 Feb after 36.1 °C 31 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
23 Feb after 34.3 °C 40 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
24 Feb after 35.2 °C 33 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
25 Feb after 35.8 °C 35 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
26 Feb after 35.7 °C 36 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
27 Feb after 35.3 °C 35 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 35

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 2 Feb 2026
After · 24 Feb 2026

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 15 February 2026 the air beside the fire reached 91 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 40: 2.7 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak91 µg/m³
Days over the guideline6 days
PM1096 µg/m³
Optical depth0.71
7891011121314151617181920
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 · 85Every 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 9 February 2026 and 17 February 2026: 9 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 4,077 hectares (40.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Muñoz (4,104 ha, 0.5 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 36.4 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 41 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 37, 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
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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.