How long did the Raúl Leoni fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 8 April 2017 and 10 April 2017: 3 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 2,980 hectares (29.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire only entered Raúl Leoni (3,005 ha, 0.0 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 36.4 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 30, 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.

VE · Venezuela · 2017-04-08 → 2017-04-10

Raúl Leoni fire, 8 April 2017 Raúl Leoni

Out · last detection 10 Apr 2017, 05:31 UTC

The fire started on 8 April 2017 in Raúl Leoni, Venezuela, and satellites saw it burning for 3 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,980 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

It is the 48th largest in Bolívar since 2016 (of 193 with a page). Number 11 in Venezuela in 2017, of 59.

Burnt area: 2,980ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 3days; 8 Apr 2017 – 10 Apr 2017
Municipalities hit: 1; municipalities
Started on: 8 Apr; 2017
Heat detections: 64; in a single hotspot: 51 MW
Danger at start: 29; High · FWI index
Energy released: 547MW; sum of detected power

Play back 10 Apr 2017

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 8 Apr10 Apr

How it evolved, day by day

8910

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

45km/h · peak gust

24%lowest humidity

It had gone 13 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 7.4 mm on 12 Apr.

This area had burned before

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

What happened to each town

Raúl Leoni 40,927 inhabitants where it started

3,005 ha reached on 8 Apr

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)
7 Apr	34.2 °C	31 %	44 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
8 Apr	34.0 °C	39 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	High 26
9 Apr	34.9 °C	32 %	45 km/h	0.0 mm	High 27
10 Apr	36.4 °C	24 %	38 km/h	0.0 mm	High 30
11 Apr after	37.9 °C	26 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 31
12 Apr after	34.8 °C	39 %	37 km/h	7.4 mm	Low 6

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 1 Apr 2017

After · 17 Apr 2017

Before After

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 · 64Every 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 time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Venezuela ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Raúl Leoni fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 8 April 2017 and 10 April 2017: 3 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 2,980 hectares (29.8 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire only entered Raúl Leoni (3,005 ha, 0.0 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 36.4 °C, humidity dropped to 24 % and gusts hit 45 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 30, 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

Protección Civil ↗

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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?

Dates or duration Place or towns Burned area Name It was not a wildfire Same fire as another page Something else

What really happened?

Your connection to the fire (optional) Email (optional)

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.

Where it burned