Muñoz fire, 21 February 2026 Muñoz
The fire started on 21 February 2026 in Muñoz, Venezuela, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,719 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.
It is the 320th largest in Apure since 2016 (of 919 with a page). Number 146 in Venezuela in 2026, of 396.
- Burnt area
- 2,719ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 4days
- 21 Feb 2026 – 24 Feb 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 1
- municipalities
- Started on
- 21 Feb
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 71
- in a single hotspot: 42 MW
- Danger at start
- 33
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 886MW
- 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 20 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
96% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 1,865 ha in 2019, 787 ha in 2020, 602 ha in 2022, 2,415 ha in 2023, 1,046 ha in 2024, 1,574 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,616 ha that had burned before.
- 1,865 ha Muñoz fire, January 2019 2,166 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,574 ha Muñoz fire, January 2025 2,428 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,372 ha Muñoz fire, January 2023 1,527 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 787 ha Muñoz fire, March 2020 6,438 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 371 ha Muñoz fire, January 2022 1,647 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 230 ha Muñoz fire, April 2022 1,883 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 177 ha Muñoz fire, April 2024 1,552 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
2,738 ha reached on 21 Feb0.4 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21 Feb | 36.1 °C | 32 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 22 Feb | 36.5 °C | 30 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 23 Feb | 35.1 °C | 36 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 24 Feb | 35.7 °C | 31 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 25 Feb after | 36.7 °C | 31 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 26 Feb after | 36.3 °C | 31 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 27 Feb after | 36.2 °C | 31 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 37 |
| 28 Feb after | 36.5 °C | 26 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 39 |
| 1 Mar after | 36.3 °C | 29 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 2 Mar after | 36.9 °C | 27 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 3 Mar after | 37.5 °C | 28 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 4 Mar after | 36.5 °C | 28 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 5 Mar after | 36.2 °C | 27 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 6 Mar after | 35.7 °C | 29 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
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 2026 the air beside the fire reached 40 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 26: 1.7 times the WHO daily 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 · 71Every 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 21 February 2026 and 24 February 2026: 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 2,719 hectares (27.2 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire only entered Muñoz (2,738 ha, 0.4 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 36.5 °C, humidity dropped to 30 % 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
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.