Free tools · Seen from space
Fire in Buffalo City
Fire in the twelve months to October 2026: 198 fire detections seen from space; 117 ha burnt in the 7 of those months with burnt area out. The most since 2012: 2013, 623.
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
- 198Fire detectionsNovember 2025 to October 2026
- 117 haBurnt7 of the twelve months; the rest not out yet
Show the numbers
| When or what | Figure |
|---|---|
| November 2025 | 42 fire detections |
| December 2025 | 11 fire detections |
| January 2026 | 68 fire detections |
| February 2026 | 6 fire detections |
| March 2026 | 11 fire detections |
| April 2026 | 18 fire detections |
| May 2026 | 14 fire detections |
| June 2026 | 2 fire detections |
| July 2026 | 6 fire detections |
| August 2026 | 12 fire detections |
| September 2026 | 5 fire detections |
| October 2026 | 3 fire detections |
| November 2025 | 19 ha burnt (0.007% of the place) |
| December 2025 | 0.0 ha burnt (0.000% of the place) |
| January 2026 | 89 ha burnt (0.032% of the place) |
| February 2026 | 1.7 ha burnt (0.001% of the place) |
| March 2026 | 0.0 ha burnt (0.000% of the place) |
| April 2026 | 0.0 ha burnt (0.000% of the place) |
| May 2026 | 7.6 ha burnt (0.003% 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 | 3 | 3 | 7 | not out yet | · | · |
| September 2026 | 5 | 5 | 5 | not out yet | · | · |
| August 2026 | 12 | 12 | 14 | not out yet | · | · |
| July 2026 | 6 | 6 | 10 | not out yet | · | · |
| June 2026 | 2 | 2 | 5 | not out yet | · | · |
| May 2026 | 14 | 14 | 17 | 7.6 ha | 0.003% | 99% |
| April 2026 | 18 | 18 | 10 | 0.0 ha | 0.000% | 99% |
| March 2026 | 11 | 10 | 14 | 0.0 ha | 0.000% | 99% |
| February 2026 | 6 | 5 | 7 | 1.7 ha | 0.001% | 99% |
| January 2026 | 68 | 64 | 86 | 89 ha | 0.032% | 99% |
| December 2025 | 11 | 10 | 16 | 0.0 ha | 0.000% | 99% |
| November 2025 | 42 | 40 | 53 | 19 ha | 0.007% | 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
- 2013623 fire detections, most in September 2013
- 2020598 fire detections, most in August 2020; 1,611 ha burnt
- 2023565 fire detections, most in April 2023; 4,335 ha burnt
By hectares burnt (whole years from 2019): 2023, 4,335 ha (1.5% of the place); 2024, 3,509 ha (1.2% of the place); 2021, 3,176 ha (1.1% of the place).
Every year since 2012
| Year | Fire detections | Burnt | Share of the place |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 (10 months) | 145 | 5 months out | · |
| 2025 | 289 | 693 ha | 0.25% |
| 2024 | 396 | 3,509 ha | 1.2% |
| 2023 | 565 | 4,335 ha | 1.5% |
| 2022 | 143 | 143 ha | 0.051% |
| 2021 | 537 | 3,176 ha | 1.1% |
| 2020 | 598 | 1,611 ha | 0.57% |
| 2019 | 360 | 548 ha | 0.19% |
| 2018 | 288 | 6 months out | · |
| 2017 | 308 | · | · |
| 2016 | 254 | · | · |
| 2015 | 126 | · | · |
| 2014 | 344 | · | · |
| 2013 | 623 | · | · |
| 2012 (11 months) | 514 | · | · |
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 (Lennox Estate, Panmure)
- Ward 2 (Duncan Village, Pefferville)
- Ward 3 (Baysville, Belgravia)
- Ward 4 (Cambridge, Cambridge Village)
- Ward 5 (Scenery Park, Wilsonia)
- Ward 6 (Parkside)
- Ward 7 (Amalinda, Duncan Village)
- Ward 8 (Gompo)
- Ward 9 (Braelyn, Braelyn Hills)
- Ward 10 (Buffalo Flats, Haven Hills North)
- Ward 11 (Sisonke, Ethembeni)
- Ward 12 (Khayelethu)
- Ward 13 (Reeston)
- Ward 14 (Linge, Velwano)
- Ward 15 (Abbotsford, Dorchester Heights)
- Ward 16 (Cambridge West, Dawn)
- Ward 17 (Mdantsane, Masibambane)
- Ward 18 (Berea, Bonnie Doon)
- Ward 19 (KuGompo City, Greenfields)
- Ward 20 (Mdantsane, Lillian Ngoyi Village)
- Ward 21 (Sisulu Village, Lillian Ngoyi Village)
- Ward 22 (Kulogaxa, KwaNxamkwana)
- Ward 23 (Sisulu Village)
- Ward 24 (Potsdam, KwaNdayi)
- Ward 25 (Phakamisa, Fort Murray)
- Ward 26 (Macleantown)
- Ward 27 (Gonubie West, Mzamomhle)
- Ward 28 (Beacon Bay, Beacon Bay North)
- Ward 29 (Gonubie, Eastward Ho)
- Ward 30 (Hani Park, Manyano)
- Ward 31 (Boxwood, Cove Rock Country Estate)
- Ward 32 (Christmas Rock, Kayser's Beach)
- Ward 33 (Nohlazana, Phumlani)
- Ward 34 (Dimbaza)
- Ward 35 (eBhalasi, Trastini)
- Ward 36 (Mngqesha, Ngcamgeni)
- Ward 37 (Qonce, Fort Hill)
- Ward 38 (Nofeliti, Tolofiyeni)
- Ward 39 (Gwaba, Ginsberg)
- Ward 40 (KwaMasele, KwaNdubungela)
- Ward 41 (Zwelitsha)
- Ward 42 (Ethembeni, Sisonke)
- Ward 43 (Bhisho, KwaGana)
- Ward 44 (Beacon Hill, KwaTshatshu)
- Ward 45 (Ntabozuko, eSingeni)
- Ward 46 (Rosemount, Sunnyridge)
- Ward 47 (Arcadia, North End)
- Ward 48 (Lillian Ngoyi Village)
- Ward 49 (Ndevana)
- Ward 50 (Sunrise-on-Sea)
Places in each ward: © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Everything we hold for Buffalo City, 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.