Free tools · Seen from space
Fire in Bushbuckridge
Fire in the twelve months to October 2026: 1,158 fire detections seen from space; 2,695 ha burnt in the 7 of those months with burnt area out. The most since 2012: 2014, 5,337.
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
- 1,158Fire detectionsNovember 2025 to October 2026
- 2,695 haBurnt7 of the twelve months; the rest not out yet
Show the numbers
| When or what | Figure |
|---|---|
| November 2025 | 1 fire detection |
| December 2025 | 6 fire detections |
| January 2026 | 1 fire detection |
| February 2026 | 37 fire detections |
| March 2026 | 39 fire detections |
| April 2026 | 4 fire detections |
| May 2026 | 69 fire detections |
| June 2026 | 200 fire detections |
| July 2026 | 282 fire detections |
| August 2026 | 156 fire detections |
| September 2026 | 65 fire detections |
| October 2026 | 298 fire detections |
| November 2025 | 1.4 ha burnt (0.000% of the place) |
| December 2025 | 0.0 ha burnt (0.000% of the place) |
| January 2026 | 0.0 ha burnt (0.000% of the place) |
| February 2026 | 0.8 ha burnt (0.000% of the place) |
| March 2026 | 914 ha burnt (0.089% of the place) |
| April 2026 | 0.0 ha burnt (0.000% of the place) |
| May 2026 | 1,779 ha burnt (0.17% 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 | 298 | 246 | 327 | not out yet | · | · |
| September 2026 | 65 | 56 | 103 | not out yet | · | · |
| August 2026 | 156 | 144 | 205 | not out yet | · | · |
| July 2026 | 282 | 266 | 350 | not out yet | · | · |
| June 2026 | 200 | 191 | 196 | not out yet | · | · |
| May 2026 | 69 | 63 | 95 | 1,779 ha | 0.17% | 100% |
| April 2026 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 0.0 ha | 0.000% | 100% |
| March 2026 | 39 | 32 | 33 | 914 ha | 0.089% | 100% |
| February 2026 | 37 | 34 | 38 | 0.8 ha | 0.000% | 100% |
| January 2026 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0.0 ha | 0.000% | 100% |
| December 2025 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 0.0 ha | 0.000% | 100% |
| November 2025 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 1.4 ha | 0.000% | 100% |
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
- 20145,337 fire detections, most in September 2014
- 20214,626 fire detections, most in May 2021; 91,322 ha burnt
- 20233,394 fire detections, most in June 2023; 107,990 ha burnt
By hectares burnt (whole years from 2019): 2023, 107,990 ha (10.5% of the place); 2021, 91,322 ha (8.9% of the place); 2025, 88,148 ha (8.6% of the place).
Every year since 2012
| Year | Fire detections | Burnt | Share of the place |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 (10 months) | 1,151 | 5 months out | · |
| 2025 | 2,974 | 88,148 ha | 8.6% |
| 2024 | 2,488 | 48,060 ha | 4.7% |
| 2023 | 3,394 | 107,990 ha | 10.5% |
| 2022 | 1,685 | 35,820 ha | 3.5% |
| 2021 | 4,626 | 91,322 ha | 8.9% |
| 2020 | 1,264 | 26,484 ha | 2.6% |
| 2019 | 1,244 | 12,987 ha | 1.3% |
| 2018 | 1,028 | 6 months out | · |
| 2017 | 828 | · | · |
| 2016 | 415 | · | · |
| 2015 | 1,844 | · | · |
| 2014 | 5,337 | · | · |
| 2013 | 2,147 | · | · |
| 2012 (11 months) | 1,795 | · | · |
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 (Mkhuhlu)
- Ward 2
- Ward 3 (Mkhuhlu)
- Ward 4 (Marite)
- Ward 5 (Alexandria)
- Ward 6
- Ward 7 (London, Mariepskop Forestry Station)
- Ward 8 (Dwarsloop)
- Ward 9 (Bushbuckridge)
- Ward 10 (Arthur Stone)
- Ward 11 (Violet Bank)
- Ward 12 (Orinoco)
- Ward 13 (Tswafeng, Madyembeni)
- Ward 14 (Boiketlo)
- Ward 15 (Ga-Boelang, Mokhololine)
- Ward 16 (Midibiding, Sehloke)
- Ward 17 (Tsakani)
- Ward 18
- Ward 19 (Acornhoek)
- Ward 20 (Okkerneutboom, Sigagule)
- Ward 21
- Ward 22 (Chochocho, Thumalahashe)
- Ward 23
- Ward 24
- Ward 25 (Sabiepark)
- Ward 26 (Justicia)
- Ward 27 (Kildare, Croquet Lawn)
- Ward 28 (Agincourt, Xanthia)
- Ward 29
- Ward 30 (Khokhovela, Balule Satellite Camp)
- Ward 31
- Ward 32 (Morolaneng, Motlamogale)
- Ward 33 (Hluvukani, Ka-Tsakani)
- Ward 34 (Gottenburg)
- Ward 35 (Cunning Moor)
- Ward 36
- Ward 37
- Ward 38 (Allandale, Athol)
- Ward 39 (Dumfries)
- Ward 40
Places in each ward: © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Everything we hold for Bushbuckridge, 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.