Free tools · Seen from space
Fire in Breede Valley
Fire in the twelve months to October 2026: 636 fire detections seen from space; 6,452 ha burnt in the 7 of those months with burnt area out. The most since 2012: 2024, 1,119.
Two readings from space. Fire detections are hot spots a VIIRS satellite saw as it passed, each about 375 m across, counted where they fall in the place: a big fire gives many, a short one between passes none. Burnt area is the ground that looks burnt afterwards, from Sentinel-3 at 300 m, in hectares. Neither is a fire report from the ground.
The last twelve months
- 636Fire detectionsNovember 2025 to October 2026
- 6,452 haBurnt7 of the twelve months; the rest not out yet
Show the numbers
| When or what | Figure |
|---|---|
| November 2025 | 62 fire detections |
| December 2025 | 320 fire detections |
| January 2026 | 169 fire detections |
| February 2026 | 8 fire detections |
| March 2026 | 60 fire detections |
| April 2026 | 3 fire detections |
| May 2026 | 0 fire detections |
| June 2026 | 3 fire detections |
| July 2026 | 0 fire detections |
| August 2026 | 5 fire detections |
| September 2026 | 2 fire detections |
| October 2026 | 4 fire detections |
| November 2025 | 540 ha burnt (0.14% of the place) |
| December 2025 | 2,373 ha burnt (0.62% of the place) |
| January 2026 | 3,038 ha burnt (0.79% of the place) |
| February 2026 | 94 ha burnt (0.025% of the place) |
| March 2026 | 279 ha burnt (0.073% of the place) |
| April 2026 | 54 ha burnt (0.014% of the place) |
| May 2026 | 74 ha burnt (0.019% of the place) |
| June 2026 | not out yet |
| July 2026 | not out yet |
| August 2026 | not out yet |
| September 2026 | not out yet |
| October 2026 | not out yet |
| Month | Detections | Nominal or high confidence | NOAA-20 (second reading) | Burnt | Share of the place | Land seen |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| October 2026 | 4 | 4 | 0 | not out yet | · | · |
| September 2026 | 2 | 1 | 3 | not out yet | · | · |
| August 2026 | 5 | 5 | 9 | not out yet | · | · |
| July 2026 | 0 | 0 | 3 | not out yet | · | · |
| June 2026 | 3 | 3 | 2 | not out yet | · | · |
| May 2026 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 74 ha | 0.019% | 99% |
| April 2026 | 3 | 3 | 13 | 54 ha | 0.014% | 99% |
| March 2026 | 60 | 56 | 71 | 279 ha | 0.073% | 99% |
| February 2026 | 8 | 6 | 7 | 94 ha | 0.025% | 99% |
| January 2026 | 169 | 152 | 201 | 3,038 ha | 0.79% | 99% |
| December 2025 | 320 | 284 | 319 | 2,373 ha | 0.62% | 99% |
| November 2025 | 62 | 59 | 100 | 540 ha | 0.14% | 99% |
NOAA-20 carries the same instrument as S-NPP and passes about 50 minutes apart, so its count is a second reading of the same fires, not extra fires. “Land seen” is the share of the place’s land the burnt-area product saw often enough that month to tell.
The worst years
- 20241,119 fire detections, most in February 2024; 12,183 ha burnt
- 2016849 fire detections, most in February 2016
- 2018540 fire detections, most in January 2018
By hectares burnt (whole years from 2019): 2024, 12,183 ha (3.2% of the place); 2025, 3,824 ha (1.00% of the place); 2022, 2,993 ha (0.78% of the place).
Every year since 2012
| Year | Fire detections | Burnt | Share of the place |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 (10 months) | 254 | 5 months out | · |
| 2025 | 480 | 3,824 ha | 1.00% |
| 2024 | 1,119 | 12,183 ha | 3.2% |
| 2023 | 81 | 854 ha | 0.22% |
| 2022 | 407 | 2,993 ha | 0.78% |
| 2021 | 255 | 704 ha | 0.18% |
| 2020 | 237 | 952 ha | 0.25% |
| 2019 | 144 | 224 ha | 0.060% |
| 2018 | 540 | 6 months out | · |
| 2017 | 454 | · | · |
| 2016 | 849 | · | · |
| 2015 | 529 | · | · |
| 2014 | 490 | · | · |
| 2013 | 291 | · | · |
| 2012 (11 months) | 179 | · | · |
Detections from February 2012 (S-NPP); burnt area from July 2018, so whole years of it from 2019. A larger place’s figures are the sums of its 2026 wards.
Each ward
- Ward 1 (Touws River, Kleinfontein)
- Ward 2 (De Doorns)
- Ward 3 (De Doorns, Panorama)
- Ward 4 (De Doorns)
- Ward 5 (De Wet, Panorama)
- Ward 6 (Bloekombos, Fairway Heights)
- Ward 7 (Bergsig, Fairyglen)
- Ward 8 (Industria)
- Ward 9 (Esselen Park, Parkersdam)
- Ward 10 (Hex Park)
- Ward 11 (Florian Park, Riverview)
- Ward 12 (Worcester, Avian-Park)
- Ward 13 (Johnson Park)
- Ward 14 (Victoria Park)
- Ward 15 (Langerug, Somerset Park)
- Ward 16 (Zweletemba)
- Ward 17 (Zweletemba)
- Ward 18 (Zweletemba)
- Ward 19 (Kwaggaskloof, Hannetjieskraal)
- Ward 20 (Goudini, Rawsonville)
- Ward 21 (Avian-Park)
Places in each ward: © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Everything we hold for Breede Valley, on one page
Source
Seen from space by American and European satellites: not fires reported on the ground.
How we worked this out
What we changed: we counted FIRMS’s detections (presumed vegetation fires only) by the 2026 ward their position falls in, and summed CLMS’s burned fraction times each pixel’s area over each ward; municipalities, districts and provinces are the sums of their wards.
Fire detections: we acknowledge the use of data and/or imagery from NASA’s Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS), part of NASA’s LANCE (VIIRS 375 m, S-NPP and NOAA-20). Burnt area: generated using European Union’s Copernicus Land Monitoring Service information (Burnt Area 300 m version 4, DOI 10.2909/8fa58061-28ab-49bb-9b77-c26b50733e34), modified; this does not mean the European Union endorses us.
Dataset: burnt area and fire, release of 12 November 2026.