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VE · Venezuela · →

Uracoa fire, 16 February 2019 Libertador, Uracoa

Out · last detection 19 Feb 2019, 17:27 UTC

The fire started on 16 February 2019 in Uracoa, Venezuela, and satellites saw it burning for 4 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,588 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.

It is the 75th largest in Monagas since 2016 (of 165 with a page). Number 98 in Venezuela in 2019, of 296.

Burnt area
2,588ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
4days
16 Feb 2019 – 19 Feb 2019
Municipalities hit
2
municipalities
Started on
16 Feb
2019
Heat detections
102
in a single hotspot: 102 MW
Danger at start
35
High · FWI index
Energy released
1.8GW
sum of detected power

Where it burned

19 Feb 2019
HOTSPOTS BY DAY 16 Feb19 Feb

How it evolved, day by day

16171819

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
50km/h · peak gust
32%lowest humidity

It had gone 24 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.1 mm on 25 Feb.

This area had burned before

27% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 690 ha in 2017.

What happened to each town

  1. Libertador 45,274 inhabitants
    1,829 ha reached on 16 Feb
    0.6 %
  2. Uracoa 9,625 inhabitants where it started
    776 ha reached on 16 Feb
    0.4 %

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)
16 Feb 35.2 °C 32 % 48 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
17 Feb 34.2 °C 36 % 50 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
18 Feb 34.1 °C 32 % 45 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
19 Feb 32.4 °C 43 % 45 km/h 0.3 mm High 33
20 Feb after 33.9 °C 34 % 42 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
21 Feb after 32.2 °C 45 % 47 km/h 0.5 mm High 31
22 Feb after 33.1 °C 38 % 45 km/h 0.3 mm High 32
23 Feb after 32.0 °C 42 % 47 km/h 0.1 mm High 33
24 Feb after 34.2 °C 34 % 47 km/h 0.1 mm High 34
25 Feb after 32.2 °C 44 % 43 km/h 1.1 mm High 22

Before and after, from space

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

Before · 9 Feb 2019
After · 26 Feb 2019

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 · 102Every 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 Uracoa fire last?
GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 16 February 2019 and 19 February 2019: 4 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 2,588 hectares (25.9 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire entered 2 municipalities: Libertador (1,829 ha, 0.6 %); Uracoa (776 ha, 0.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.2 °C, humidity dropped to 32 % and gusts hit 50 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
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.