Free tools · Seen from space
Fire in Elias Motsoaledi
Fire in the twelve months to October 2026: 1,583 fire detections seen from space; 691 ha burnt in the 7 of those months with burnt area out. The most since 2012: 2024, 2,601.
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
- 1,583Fire detectionsNovember 2025 to October 2026
- 691 haBurnt7 of the twelve months; the rest not out yet
Show the numbers
| When or what | Figure |
|---|---|
| November 2025 | 22 fire detections |
| December 2025 | 3 fire detections |
| January 2026 | 6 fire detections |
| February 2026 | 40 fire detections |
| March 2026 | 3 fire detections |
| April 2026 | 9 fire detections |
| May 2026 | 40 fire detections |
| June 2026 | 152 fire detections |
| July 2026 | 514 fire detections |
| August 2026 | 397 fire detections |
| September 2026 | 179 fire detections |
| October 2026 | 218 fire detections |
| November 2025 | 0.0 ha burnt (0.000% of the place) |
| December 2025 | 0.0 ha burnt (0.000% of the place) |
| January 2026 | 9.0 ha burnt (0.002% of the place) |
| February 2026 | 147 ha burnt (0.040% of the place) |
| March 2026 | 30 ha burnt (0.008% of the place) |
| April 2026 | 79 ha burnt (0.021% of the place) |
| May 2026 | 426 ha burnt (0.12% 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 | 218 | 188 | 249 | not out yet | · | · |
| September 2026 | 179 | 172 | 176 | not out yet | · | · |
| August 2026 | 397 | 371 | 374 | not out yet | · | · |
| July 2026 | 514 | 496 | 718 | not out yet | · | · |
| June 2026 | 152 | 140 | 136 | not out yet | · | · |
| May 2026 | 40 | 40 | 37 | 426 ha | 0.12% | 100% |
| April 2026 | 9 | 9 | 16 | 79 ha | 0.021% | 100% |
| March 2026 | 3 | 3 | 11 | 30 ha | 0.008% | 100% |
| February 2026 | 40 | 33 | 32 | 147 ha | 0.040% | 100% |
| January 2026 | 6 | 4 | 9 | 9.0 ha | 0.002% | 100% |
| December 2025 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 0.0 ha | 0.000% | 100% |
| November 2025 | 22 | 19 | 12 | 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
- 20242,601 fire detections, most in September 2024; 53,784 ha burnt
- 20142,030 fire detections, most in August 2014
- 20231,992 fire detections, most in August 2023; 28,845 ha burnt
By hectares burnt (whole years from 2019): 2024, 53,784 ha (14.5% of the place); 2025, 35,560 ha (9.6% of the place); 2021, 30,849 ha (8.3% of the place).
Every year since 2012
| Year | Fire detections | Burnt | Share of the place |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 (10 months) | 1,558 | 5 months out | · |
| 2025 | 1,854 | 35,560 ha | 9.6% |
| 2024 | 2,601 | 53,784 ha | 14.5% |
| 2023 | 1,992 | 28,845 ha | 7.8% |
| 2022 | 1,623 | 25,052 ha | 6.7% |
| 2021 | 1,727 | 30,849 ha | 8.3% |
| 2020 | 1,284 | 21,800 ha | 5.9% |
| 2019 | 1,525 | 26,627 ha | 7.2% |
| 2018 | 1,448 | 6 months out | · |
| 2017 | 1,569 | · | · |
| 2016 | 911 | · | · |
| 2015 | 1,871 | · | · |
| 2014 | 2,030 | · | · |
| 2013 | 1,746 | · | · |
| 2012 (11 months) | 1,384 | · | · |
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 (Mthenti)
- Ward 2 (Moteti)
- Ward 3 (Kgobokwane)
- Ward 4 (Stomp)
- Ward 5 (Magakadimeng, Mpheleng)
- Ward 6 (Theareng)
- Ward 7 (Kolofane)
- Ward 8 (Elandsdoorn, Marapong)
- Ward 9
- Ward 10 (Ntwane)
- Ward 11 (Dennilton)
- Ward 12 (Ntwane, Thabakhubedu)
- Ward 13 (Groblersdal)
- Ward 14 (Aquaville)
- Ward 15 (Mathula)
- Ward 16 (Elandslaagte, Sehlakwane)
- Ward 17
- Ward 18 (Ga-Phetla, Makgohong)
- Ward 19 (Dindela, Hlogotlou)
- Ward 20
- Ward 21 (Ga-Pamadi)
- Ward 22 (Luckau)
- Ward 23 (Buitenzorg, Kwa-Dlaulale)
- Ward 24
- Ward 25
- Ward 26
- Ward 27
- Ward 28
- Ward 29
- Ward 30 (Roossenekal)
- Ward 31 (Motetema)
Places in each ward: © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Everything we hold for Elias Motsoaledi, 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.