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Nirgua fire, 13 March 2020 Nirgua, José Antonio Páez

Out · last detection 21 Mar 2020, 05:56 UTC

The fire started on 13 March 2020 in Nirgua, Venezuela, and satellites saw it burning for 9 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,078 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 5th largest in Yaracuy since 2016 (of 12 with a page). Number 203 in Venezuela in 2020, of 402.

The power measured by the satellite is low (25.5 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
2,078ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
9days
13 Mar 2020 – 21 Mar 2020
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
13 Mar
2020
Heat detections
67
in a single hotspot: 26 MW
Danger at start
37
High · FWI index
Energy released
363MW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

21 Mar 2020
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 13 Mar21 Mar

How it evolved, day by day

131415161718192021

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

The weather it burned in

35°high
49km/h · peak gust
26%lowest humidity

It had gone 23 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

40% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 763 ha in 2016, 72 ha in 2019.

What happened to each town

  1. Nirgua 58,932 inhabitants where it started
    1,972 ha reached on 13 Mar
    1.0 %
  2. José Antonio Páez 19,673 inhabitants
    119 ha reached on 14 Mar
    1.0 %

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)
13 Mar 35.0 °C 33 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
14 Mar 34.3 °C 30 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
15 Mar 33.8 °C 29 % 44 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
16 Mar 34.0 °C 28 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 40
17 Mar 33.8 °C 31 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
18 Mar 34.2 °C 26 % 43 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 41
19 Mar 33.3 °C 28 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
20 Mar 33.2 °C 29 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
21 Mar 33.2 °C 27 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
22 Mar after 33.3 °C 29 % 45 km/h 0.1 mm Very high 40
23 Mar after 33.4 °C 35 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
24 Mar after 34.6 °C 36 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
25 Mar after 33.4 °C 37 % 34 km/h 0.2 mm High 35
26 Mar after 34.2 °C 31 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
27 Mar after 35.7 °C 23 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
28 Mar after 35.0 °C 22 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 43
29 Mar after 34.6 °C 29 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
30 Mar after 35.3 °C 27 % 47 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 44
31 Mar after 31.7 °C 37 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 34
1 Apr after 34.6 °C 30 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 36

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 6 Mar 2020
After · 28 Mar 2020

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 13 March 2020 and 21 March 2020: 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 2,078 hectares (20.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Nirgua (1,972 ha, 1.0 %); José Antonio Páez (119 ha, 1.0 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.0 °C, humidity dropped to 26 % and gusts hit 49 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.

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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.