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Nirgua fire, 19 March 2016 Nirgua, Simón Planas

Out · last detection 25 Mar 2016, 06:16 UTC

The fire started on 19 March 2016 in Nirgua, Venezuela, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 1,941 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 7th largest in Yaracuy since 2016 (of 12 with a page). Number 135 in Venezuela in 2016, of 238.

Burnt area
1,941ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
7days
19 Mar 2016 – 25 Mar 2016
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
19 Mar
2016
Heat detections
67
in a single hotspot: 59 MW
Danger at start
32
High · FWI index
Energy released
528MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

25 Mar 2016
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 19 Mar25 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

192021222325

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

The weather it burned in

38°high
55km/h · peak gust
25%lowest humidity

It had gone 15 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.1 mm on 1 Apr.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

What happened to each town

  1. Nirgua 58,932 inhabitants where it started
    1,951 ha reached on 19 Mar
    1.0 %
  2. Simón Planas 35,802 inhabitants
    1 ha
    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)
12 Mar 34.7 °C 33 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
13 Mar 36.2 °C 25 % 32 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
14 Mar 35.0 °C 33 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
15 Mar 34.6 °C 41 % 34 km/h 0.1 mm High 30
16 Mar 34.2 °C 50 % 41 km/h 0.1 mm High 28
17 Mar 34.7 °C 44 % 33 km/h 0.1 mm High 26
18 Mar 35.3 °C 38 % 32 km/h 0.4 mm High 26
19 Mar 36.9 °C 37 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
20 Mar 37.9 °C 30 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
21 Mar 38.3 °C 32 % 55 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
22 Mar 35.1 °C 40 % 37 km/h 0.5 mm High 34
23 Mar 36.8 °C 30 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
24 Mar 37.0 °C 32 % 37 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
25 Mar 35.8 °C 29 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
26 Mar after 36.1 °C 29 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
27 Mar after 36.1 °C 32 % 39 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
28 Mar after 35.2 °C 36 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
29 Mar after 35.4 °C 35 % 35 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
30 Mar after 35.5 °C 39 % 48 km/h 0.1 mm High 37
31 Mar after 35.2 °C 41 % 49 km/h 0.1 mm High 36
1 Apr after 33.2 °C 51 % 42 km/h 1.1 mm Moderate 19

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 12 Mar 2016
After · 1 Apr 2016

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 · 67Every 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 Nirgua fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 19 March 2016 and 25 March 2016: 7 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 1,941 hectares (19.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Nirgua (1,951 ha, 1.0 %); Simón Planas (1 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 38.3 °C, humidity dropped to 25 % and gusts hit 55 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 42, class Very 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
What do you think is wrong?

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.