Free tools · Seen from space
Fire in Elundini
Fire in the twelve months to October 2026: 2,416 fire detections seen from space; 530 ha burnt in the 7 of those months with burnt area out. The most since 2012: 2023, 3,701.
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
- 2,416Fire detectionsNovember 2025 to October 2026
- 530 haBurnt7 of the twelve months; the rest not out yet
Show the numbers
| When or what | Figure |
|---|---|
| November 2025 | 51 fire detections |
| December 2025 | 7 fire detections |
| January 2026 | 35 fire detections |
| February 2026 | 17 fire detections |
| March 2026 | 23 fire detections |
| April 2026 | 19 fire detections |
| May 2026 | 33 fire detections |
| June 2026 | 160 fire detections |
| July 2026 | 658 fire detections |
| August 2026 | 1,046 fire detections |
| September 2026 | 241 fire detections |
| October 2026 | 126 fire detections |
| November 2025 | 18 ha burnt (0.004% of the place) |
| December 2025 | 0.0 ha burnt (0.000% of the place) |
| January 2026 | 87 ha burnt (0.017% of the place) |
| February 2026 | 13 ha burnt (0.003% of the place) |
| March 2026 | 53 ha burnt (0.011% of the place) |
| April 2026 | 32 ha burnt (0.006% of the place) |
| May 2026 | 327 ha burnt (0.065% 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 | 126 | 122 | 107 | not out yet | · | · |
| September 2026 | 241 | 235 | 296 | not out yet | · | · |
| August 2026 | 1,046 | 1,022 | 1,351 | not out yet | · | · |
| July 2026 | 658 | 646 | 658 | not out yet | · | · |
| June 2026 | 160 | 152 | 144 | not out yet | · | · |
| May 2026 | 33 | 30 | 42 | 327 ha | 0.065% | 100% |
| April 2026 | 19 | 17 | 19 | 32 ha | 0.006% | 100% |
| March 2026 | 23 | 21 | 33 | 53 ha | 0.011% | 100% |
| February 2026 | 17 | 17 | 21 | 13 ha | 0.003% | 100% |
| January 2026 | 35 | 29 | 25 | 87 ha | 0.017% | 100% |
| December 2025 | 7 | 7 | 3 | 0.0 ha | 0.000% | 100% |
| November 2025 | 51 | 41 | 67 | 18 ha | 0.004% | 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
- 20233,701 fire detections, most in August 2023; 69,865 ha burnt
- 20243,395 fire detections, most in August 2024; 78,233 ha burnt
- 20133,128 fire detections, most in August 2013
By hectares burnt (whole years from 2019): 2024, 78,233 ha (15.6% of the place); 2023, 69,865 ha (13.9% of the place); 2021, 65,096 ha (13.0% of the place).
Every year since 2012
| Year | Fire detections | Burnt | Share of the place |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 (10 months) | 2,358 | 5 months out | · |
| 2025 | 2,105 | 43,191 ha | 8.6% |
| 2024 | 3,395 | 78,233 ha | 15.6% |
| 2023 | 3,701 | 69,865 ha | 13.9% |
| 2022 | 1,460 | 35,966 ha | 7.2% |
| 2021 | 2,746 | 65,096 ha | 13.0% |
| 2020 | 1,900 | 45,078 ha | 9.0% |
| 2019 | 1,685 | 41,659 ha | 8.3% |
| 2018 | 1,297 | 6 months out | · |
| 2017 | 1,983 | · | · |
| 2016 | 1,119 | · | · |
| 2015 | 2,521 | · | · |
| 2014 | 2,461 | · | · |
| 2013 | 3,128 | · | · |
| 2012 (11 months) | 2,444 | · | · |
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
- Ward 2 (Ugie)
- Ward 3 (Nqanqarhu)
- Ward 4 (Nqanqarhu)
- Ward 5 (Mahlubini)
- Ward 6
- Ward 7
- Ward 8
- Ward 9 (Tlokoeng)
- Ward 10 (Kholumolumo)
- Ward 11 (Diboteng, Dikonyeleng)
- Ward 12 (Mahanyaneni, Setala)
- Ward 13 (Koebung, Mashata)
- Ward 14 (Diphokong, eNtabeni)
- Ward 15 (Tlokoeng)
- Ward 16
- Ward 17 (Ugie)
Places in each ward: © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Everything we hold for Elundini, 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.