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Air in Emadlangeni

Air in 2025 (modelled): nitrogen dioxide near the ground averaged 17 µg/m³, 1.7 times WHO’s guideline of 10; winters 24 µg/m³, summers 9.9 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 202511 µg/m³52 µg/m³74 µmol/m²87 µmol/m²
November 202511 µg/m³51 µg/m³89 µmol/m²96 µmol/m²
October 202516 µg/m³55 µg/m³112 µmol/m²143 µmol/m²
September 202518 µg/m³53 µg/m³122 µmol/m²163 µmol/m²
August 202528 µg/m³40 µg/m³176 µmol/m²228 µmol/m²
July 202525 µg/m³37 µg/m³168 µmol/m²202 µmol/m²
June 202525 µg/m³33 µg/m³168 µmol/m²170 µmol/m²
May 202521 µg/m³33 µg/m³145 µmol/m²148 µmol/m²
April 202516 µg/m³34 µg/m³118 µmol/m²115 µmol/m²
March 202512 µg/m³42 µg/m³80 µmol/m²83 µmol/m²
February 20257.6 µg/m³43 µg/m³67 µmol/m²69 µmol/m²
January 202510 µg/m³47 µg/m³70 µmol/m²79 µmol/m²
December 202410 µg/m³58 µg/m³98 µmol/m²142 µmol/m²
November 202415 µg/m³59 µg/m³104 µmol/m²129 µmol/m²
October 202414 µg/m³64 µg/m³90 µmol/m²108 µmol/m²
September 202421 µg/m³57 µg/m³149 µmol/m²186 µmol/m²
August 202424 µg/m³48 µg/m³165 µmol/m²183 µmol/m²
July 202425 µg/m³37 µg/m³176 µmol/m²163 µmol/m²
June 202424 µg/m³36 µg/m³143 µmol/m²142 µmol/m²
May 202425 µg/m³35 µg/m³132 µmol/m²155 µmol/m²
April 202414 µg/m³37 µg/m³114 µmol/m²129 µmol/m²
March 202410 µg/m³44 µg/m³79 µmol/m²104 µmol/m²
February 202411 µg/m³48 µg/m³71 µmol/m²100 µmol/m²
January 20249.3 µg/m³48 µg/m³58 µmol/m²76 µmol/m²

Over the last five years the NO2 column averaged 166 µmol/m² in winter against 74 µmol/m² in summer, and the SO2 column 182 µmol/m² against 87 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: 13 µg/m³2004: 13 µg/m³2005: 14 µg/m³2006: 14 µg/m³2007: 14 µg/m³2008: 14 µg/m³2009: 15 µg/m³2010: 15 µg/m³2011: 14 µg/m³2012: 15 µg/m³2013: 14 µg/m³2014: 15 µg/m³2015: 15 µg/m³2016: 15 µg/m³2017: 15 µg/m³2018: 15 µg/m³2019: 16 µg/m³2020: 15 µg/m³2021: 16 µg/m³2022: 17 µg/m³2023: 17 µg/m³2024: 17 µg/m³2025: 17 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
200313 µg/m³
200413 µg/m³
200514 µg/m³
200614 µg/m³
200714 µg/m³
200814 µg/m³
200915 µg/m³
201015 µg/m³
201114 µg/m³
201215 µg/m³
201314 µg/m³
201415 µg/m³
201515 µg/m³
201615 µg/m³
201715 µg/m³
201815 µg/m³
201916 µg/m³
202015 µg/m³
202116 µg/m³
202217 µg/m³
202317 µg/m³
202417 µg/m³
202517 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 Emadlangeni · 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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