Free tools · Seen from space
Fire in Cape Winelands
Fire in the twelve months to October 2026: 4,750 fire detections seen from space; 51,765 ha burnt in the 7 of those months with burnt area out. The most since 2012: 2017, 5,558.
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
- 4,750Fire detectionsNovember 2025 to October 2026
- 51,765 haBurnt7 of the twelve months; the rest not out yet
Show the numbers
| When or what | Figure |
|---|---|
| November 2025 | 877 fire detections |
| December 2025 | 1,022 fire detections |
| January 2026 | 1,999 fire detections |
| February 2026 | 396 fire detections |
| March 2026 | 198 fire detections |
| April 2026 | 101 fire detections |
| May 2026 | 26 fire detections |
| June 2026 | 12 fire detections |
| July 2026 | 7 fire detections |
| August 2026 | 15 fire detections |
| September 2026 | 27 fire detections |
| October 2026 | 70 fire detections |
| November 2025 | 5,553 ha burnt (0.26% of the place) |
| December 2025 | 8,462 ha burnt (0.39% of the place) |
| January 2026 | 28,651 ha burnt (1.3% of the place) |
| February 2026 | 4,760 ha burnt (0.22% of the place) |
| March 2026 | 2,746 ha burnt (0.13% of the place) |
| April 2026 | 1,426 ha burnt (0.066% of the place) |
| May 2026 | 167 ha burnt (0.008% 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 | 70 | 48 | 70 | not out yet | · | · |
| September 2026 | 27 | 26 | 19 | not out yet | · | · |
| August 2026 | 15 | 15 | 26 | not out yet | · | · |
| July 2026 | 7 | 7 | 13 | not out yet | · | · |
| June 2026 | 12 | 12 | 14 | not out yet | · | · |
| May 2026 | 26 | 26 | 32 | 167 ha | 0.008% | 99% |
| April 2026 | 101 | 99 | 142 | 1,426 ha | 0.066% | 99% |
| March 2026 | 198 | 171 | 201 | 2,746 ha | 0.13% | 100% |
| February 2026 | 396 | 377 | 388 | 4,760 ha | 0.22% | 100% |
| January 2026 | 1,999 | 1,805 | 1,965 | 28,651 ha | 1.3% | 100% |
| December 2025 | 1,022 | 836 | 1,009 | 8,462 ha | 0.39% | 100% |
| November 2025 | 877 | 764 | 867 | 5,553 ha | 0.26% | 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
- 20175,558 fire detections, most in February 2017
- 20163,829 fire detections, most in February 2016
- 20243,589 fire detections, most in January 2024; 38,425 ha burnt
By hectares burnt (whole years from 2019): 2024, 38,425 ha (1.8% of the place); 2025, 23,852 ha (1.1% of the place); 2021, 12,302 ha (0.57% of the place).
Every year since 2012
| Year | Fire detections | Burnt | Share of the place |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 (10 months) | 2,851 | 5 months out | · |
| 2025 | 3,236 | 23,852 ha | 1.1% |
| 2024 | 3,589 | 38,425 ha | 1.8% |
| 2023 | 650 | 3,530 ha | 0.17% |
| 2022 | 1,240 | 8,129 ha | 0.38% |
| 2021 | 1,591 | 12,302 ha | 0.57% |
| 2020 | 1,563 | 7,914 ha | 0.37% |
| 2019 | 1,110 | 11,093 ha | 0.52% |
| 2018 | 1,991 | 6 months out | · |
| 2017 | 5,558 | · | · |
| 2016 | 3,829 | · | · |
| 2015 | 3,403 | · | · |
| 2014 | 1,907 | · | · |
| 2013 | 2,131 | · | · |
| 2012 (11 months) | 1,095 | · | · |
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.
Everything we hold for Cape Winelands, 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.