Pedraza fire, 15 March 2023 Pedraza, Barinas
The fire started on 15 March 2023 in Pedraza, Venezuela, and satellites saw it burning for 10 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 4,036 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 11th largest in Barinas since 2016 (of 117 with a page). Number 27 in Venezuela in 2023, of 193.
- Burnt area
- 4,036ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 10days
- 15 Mar 2023 – 24 Mar 2023
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 15 Mar
- 2023
- Heat detections
- 130
- in a single hotspot: 53 MW
- Danger at start
- 24
- High · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.5GW
- 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 3 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
90% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,831 ha in 2019, 2,444 ha in 2020, 954 ha in 2022. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 3,623 ha that had burned before.
- 1,669 ha Pedraza fire, February 2019 2,421 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 1,467 ha Pedraza fire, March 2020 1,889 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 954 ha Pedraza fire, March 2022 3,003 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 674 ha Barinas fire, March 2019 4,282 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
3,220 ha reached on 15 Mar0.4 %
-
Barinas 353,851 inhabitants841 ha reached on 20 Mar0.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15 Mar | 35.8 °C | 25 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 16 Mar | 37.2 °C | 26 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 24 |
| 17 Mar | 35.9 °C | 33 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 18 Mar | 36.7 °C | 30 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 19 Mar | 37.3 °C | 26 % | 40 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 20 Mar | 35.3 °C | 29 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 21 Mar | 35.4 °C | 31 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 22 Mar | 35.0 °C | 32 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 33 |
| 23 Mar | 36.4 °C | 26 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 24 Mar | 37.6 °C | 23 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
| 25 Mar after | 36.4 °C | 26 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 26 Mar after | 34.1 °C | 41 % | 33 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 28 |
| 27 Mar after | 35.5 °C | 36 % | 38 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 30 |
| 28 Mar after | 35.1 °C | 31 % | 36 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 29 Mar after | 34.8 °C | 39 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 30 Mar after | 35.5 °C | 35 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 31 Mar after | 35.7 °C | 40 % | 41 km/h | 0.3 mm | High 30 |
| 1 Apr after | 35.3 °C | 38 % | 51 km/h | 1.1 mm | High 26 |
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 17 March 2023 the air beside the fire reached 84 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 40: 2.7 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 · 130Every 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 Pedraza fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 15 March 2023 and 24 March 2023: 10 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 4,036 hectares (40.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Pedraza (3,220 ha, 0.4 %); Barinas (841 ha, 0.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 37.6 °C, humidity dropped to 23 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 36, 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.