How long did the Tinaco fire last?

GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 29 January 2023 and 2 February 2023: 5 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 2,469 hectares (24.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 2 municipalities: Pao de San Juan Bautista (1,453 ha, 0.3 %); Tinaco (1,034 ha, 1.0 %).

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 36.6 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 44, 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.

VE · Venezuela · 2023-01-29 → 2023-02-02

Tinaco fire, January 2023 Pao de San Juan Bautista, Tinaco

Out · last detection 2 Feb 2023, 17:54 UTC

The fire started on 29 January 2023 in Tinaco, Venezuela, and satellites saw it burning for 5 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,469 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 81th largest in Cojedes since 2016 (of 219 with a page). Number 66 in Venezuela in 2023, of 193.

Burnt area: 2,469ha; GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration: 5days; 29 Jan 2023 – 2 Feb 2023
Municipalities hit: 2; municipalities
Started on: 29 Jan; 2023
Heat detections: 66; in a single hotspot: 39 MW
Danger at start: 38; Very high · FWI index
Energy released: 397MW; sum of detected power

Play back 2 Feb 2023

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 29 Jan2 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

29303112

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

The weather it burned in

37°high

39km/h · peak gust

20%lowest humidity

It had gone 20 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

34% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 884 ha in 2018. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 830 ha that had burned before.

What happened to each town

Pao de San Juan Bautista 16,810 inhabitants

1,453 ha reached on 30 Jan

0.3 %
Tinaco 32,564 inhabitants where it started

1,034 ha reached on 29 Jan

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)
29 Jan	36.4 °C	20 %	27 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
30 Jan	36.1 °C	20 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 43
31 Jan	36.6 °C	20 %	39 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 44
1 Feb	35.9 °C	22 %	35 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 42
2 Feb	36.5 °C	20 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
3 Feb after	35.1 °C	29 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38
4 Feb after	34.4 °C	36 %	38 km/h	0.4 mm	High 32
5 Feb after	36.2 °C	27 %	43 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
6 Feb after	36.7 °C	22 %	37 km/h	0.0 mm	High 38
7 Feb after	35.2 °C	33 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 35
8 Feb after	36.6 °C	29 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
9 Feb after	36.5 °C	29 %	36 km/h	0.1 mm	High 38
10 Feb after	36.4 °C	29 %	33 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
11 Feb after	36.2 °C	31 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
12 Feb after	36.9 °C	27 %	36 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 38

Before and after, from space

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

↔

Before · 22 Jan 2023

After · 9 Feb 2023

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.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 30 January 2023 the air beside the fire reached 39 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 17: 1.1 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak39 µg/m³

Days over the guideline4 days

PM1057 µg/m³

Optical depth0.44

WHO 15

272829303112345

Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

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 · 66Every 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 Tinaco fire last?: GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 29 January 2023 and 2 February 2023: 5 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 2,469 hectares (24.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 2 municipalities: Pao de San Juan Bautista (1,453 ha, 0.3 %); Tinaco (1,034 ha, 1.0 %).
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 36.6 °C, humidity dropped to 20 % and gusts hit 39 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 44, 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

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.

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What really happened?

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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.

Where it burned