Free tools · Seen from space
Fire in Dr Beyers Naude
Fire in the twelve months to October 2026: 180 fire detections seen from space; 2,162 ha burnt in the 7 of those months with burnt area out. The most since 2012: 2016, 2,112.
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
- 180Fire detectionsNovember 2025 to October 2026
- 2,162 haBurnt7 of the twelve months; the rest not out yet
Show the numbers
| When or what | Figure |
|---|---|
| November 2025 | 16 fire detections |
| December 2025 | 23 fire detections |
| January 2026 | 132 fire detections |
| February 2026 | 2 fire detections |
| March 2026 | 0 fire detections |
| April 2026 | 0 fire detections |
| May 2026 | 0 fire detections |
| June 2026 | 0 fire detections |
| July 2026 | 3 fire detections |
| August 2026 | 1 fire detection |
| September 2026 | 3 fire detections |
| October 2026 | 0 fire detections |
| November 2025 | 0.0 ha burnt (0.000% of the place) |
| December 2025 | 137 ha burnt (0.005% of the place) |
| January 2026 | 885 ha burnt (0.031% of the place) |
| February 2026 | 1,140 ha burnt (0.040% 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 | 0.0 ha burnt (0.000% 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 | 0 | 0 | 1 | not out yet | · | · |
| September 2026 | 3 | 3 | 3 | not out yet | · | · |
| August 2026 | 1 | 1 | 2 | not out yet | · | · |
| July 2026 | 3 | 3 | 3 | not out yet | · | · |
| June 2026 | 0 | 0 | 0 | not out yet | · | · |
| May 2026 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 ha | 0.000% | 100% |
| April 2026 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0.0 ha | 0.000% | 100% |
| March 2026 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 ha | 0.000% | 100% |
| February 2026 | 2 | 2 | 31 | 1,140 ha | 0.040% | 100% |
| January 2026 | 132 | 118 | 105 | 885 ha | 0.031% | 100% |
| December 2025 | 23 | 19 | 19 | 137 ha | 0.005% | 100% |
| November 2025 | 16 | 16 | 1 | 0.0 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
- 20162,112 fire detections, most in December 2016
- 20171,737 fire detections, most in November 2017
- 20181,281 fire detections, most in November 2018
By hectares burnt (whole years from 2019): 2019, 4,158 ha (0.15% of the place); 2024, 3,935 ha (0.14% of the place); 2025, 2,186 ha (0.076% of the place).
Every year since 2012
| Year | Fire detections | Burnt | Share of the place |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 (10 months) | 141 | 5 months out | · |
| 2025 | 204 | 2,186 ha | 0.076% |
| 2024 | 439 | 3,935 ha | 0.14% |
| 2023 | 123 | 993 ha | 0.034% |
| 2022 | 94 | 348 ha | 0.011% |
| 2021 | 49 | 540 ha | 0.019% |
| 2020 | 191 | 1,033 ha | 0.035% |
| 2019 | 252 | 4,158 ha | 0.15% |
| 2018 | 1,281 | 6 months out | · |
| 2017 | 1,737 | · | · |
| 2016 | 2,112 | · | · |
| 2015 | 390 | · | · |
| 2014 | 1,070 | · | · |
| 2013 | 481 | · | · |
| 2012 (11 months) | 866 | · | · |
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 (Xamdeboo, Lotusville)
- Ward 2 (Kwa Noheleni, Robert Sobukwe Town)
- Ward 3 (Asherville, Kroonvale)
- Ward 4 (Kroonvale, Bergendal)
- Ward 5 (Kroonvale, uMasizakhe)
- Ward 6 (uMasizakhe)
- Ward 7 (Asherville, Bishop Limba)
- Ward 8 (Rietbron, Willowmore)
- Ward 9 (Willowmore)
- Ward 10 (Klipplaat, Thembalesizwe)
- Ward 11 (Jansenville)
- Ward 12 (Steytlerville, Wolwefontein)
Places in each ward: © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Everything we hold for Dr Beyers Naude, 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.