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Air in Amajuba

Air in 2025 (modelled): nitrogen dioxide near the ground averaged 19 µg/m³, 1.9 times WHO’s guideline of 10; winters 26 µg/m³, summers 11 µg/m³.

Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) comes mostly from burning: power stations, vehicles, industry. Near the ground is what people breathe. The column is all of it in the air above, from the ground to the top of the sky, which is what a satellite sees. Sulphur dioxide (SO2) comes mostly from burning coal. Ozone forms in sunlight from other pollutants.

Modelled, not measured: these figures come from the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service’s reanalysis, a weather and chemistry model that takes in satellite readings. Its cells are about 80 km across, so a busy road or a smoky winter evening in one suburb is smoothed into the region around it. It is not a reading at any address.

2025

WHO’s 2021 guideline for nitrogen dioxide is 10 µg/m³ as a yearly mean. It is a long-term health guideline, not a legal limit (South Africa’s national standard for the yearly mean is set separately), and these are modelled regional means, not readings where you live.

Month by month

MonthNO2 near the groundOzone near the groundNO2 columnSO2 column
December 202513 µg/m³52 µg/m³79 µmol/m²93 µmol/m²
November 202512 µg/m³51 µg/m³95 µmol/m²103 µmol/m²
October 202519 µg/m³54 µg/m³120 µmol/m²153 µmol/m²
September 202521 µg/m³52 µg/m³130 µmol/m²171 µmol/m²
August 202530 µg/m³39 µg/m³184 µmol/m²236 µmol/m²
July 202527 µg/m³37 µg/m³169 µmol/m²203 µmol/m²
June 202526 µg/m³33 µg/m³172 µmol/m²175 µmol/m²
May 202522 µg/m³33 µg/m³145 µmol/m²150 µmol/m²
April 202518 µg/m³32 µg/m³126 µmol/m²123 µmol/m²
March 202514 µg/m³42 µg/m³88 µmol/m²92 µmol/m²
February 20258.8 µg/m³44 µg/m³73 µmol/m²77 µmol/m²
January 202512 µg/m³48 µg/m³75 µmol/m²87 µmol/m²
December 202412 µg/m³59 µg/m³105 µmol/m²151 µmol/m²
November 202417 µg/m³59 µg/m³112 µmol/m²140 µmol/m²
October 202415 µg/m³63 µg/m³97 µmol/m²116 µmol/m²
September 202423 µg/m³56 µg/m³162 µmol/m²199 µmol/m²
August 202426 µg/m³48 µg/m³165 µmol/m²184 µmol/m²
July 202426 µg/m³37 µg/m³171 µmol/m²159 µmol/m²
June 202425 µg/m³35 µg/m³150 µmol/m²151 µmol/m²
May 202427 µg/m³35 µg/m³138 µmol/m²165 µmol/m²
April 202416 µg/m³36 µg/m³123 µmol/m²138 µmol/m²
March 202412 µg/m³45 µg/m³88 µmol/m²118 µmol/m²
February 202412 µg/m³49 µg/m³78 µmol/m²112 µmol/m²
January 202411 µg/m³50 µg/m³63 µmol/m²85 µmol/m²

Over the last five years the NO2 column averaged 171 µmol/m² in winter against 81 µmol/m² in summer, and the SO2 column 188 µmol/m² against 96 µmol/m²: still winter air holds what is burnt close to the ground, and more is burnt to keep warm.

Every year since 2003

2003: 14 µg/m³2004: 14 µg/m³2005: 15 µg/m³2006: 15 µg/m³2007: 15 µg/m³2008: 16 µg/m³2009: 17 µg/m³2010: 16 µg/m³2011: 15 µg/m³2012: 16 µg/m³2013: 16 µg/m³2014: 16 µg/m³2015: 16 µg/m³2016: 16 µg/m³2017: 16 µg/m³2018: 17 µg/m³2019: 17 µg/m³2020: 17 µg/m³2021: 17 µg/m³2022: 19 µg/m³2023: 18 µg/m³2024: 18 µg/m³2025: 19 µg/m³200320082013201820232025
Nitrogen dioxide near the ground, each year’s mean (modelled). The line is WHO’s yearly guideline, 10 µg/m³.
Show the numbers
Nitrogen dioxide near the ground, the mean of each year, 2003 to 2025: every figure
When or whatFigure
200314 µg/m³
200414 µg/m³
200515 µg/m³
200615 µg/m³
200715 µg/m³
200816 µg/m³
200917 µg/m³
201016 µg/m³
201115 µg/m³
201216 µg/m³
201316 µg/m³
201416 µg/m³
201516 µg/m³
201616 µg/m³
201716 µg/m³
201817 µg/m³
201917 µg/m³
202017 µg/m³
202117 µg/m³
202219 µg/m³
202318 µg/m³
202418 µg/m³
202519 µg/m³

See it in the Copernicus Browser, the European Space Agency’s free viewer, on the newest image: Sentinel-5P, nitrogen dioxide · Sentinel-5P, sulphur dioxide. These are Sentinel-5P’s observed columns for one day, not our modelled yearly figures; days with cloud have gaps.

Every municipality, ranked · Everything we hold for Amajuba · On the explore map

Source

Modelled, not measured: these figures come from the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service’s reanalysis, a weather and chemistry model that takes in satellite readings. Its cells are about 80 km across, so a busy road or a smoky winter evening in one suburb is smoothed into the region around it. It is not a reading at any address.

How we worked this out

What we changed: we averaged the reanalysis’s monthly means over each place by its area in each 0.75 degree cell, turned NO2 and ozone on the model’s lowest level from mass mixing ratio into micrograms per m3 with the month’s air density (surface pressure and temperature), and the columns from kg per m2 into micromol per m2.

Particles (PM2.5, PM10) and sulphur dioxide near the ground are not shown yet: the model reads them far higher over Gauteng and the Highveld than is plausible for a regional mean, so they wait for a check against ground stations.

Contains modified Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service information 2003 to 2025. Neither the European Commission nor ECMWF is responsible for any use that may be made of the Copernicus information or data it contains. Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (2020): CAMS global reanalysis (EAC4) monthly averaged fields. Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) Atmosphere Data Store, DOI 10.24381/fd75fff2. Inness, A. and others (2019): The CAMS reanalysis of atmospheric composition, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 3515 to 3556. Under CC BY 4.0.

Dataset: air quality by municipality, release of 12 November 2026.

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