Free tools · Seen from space
Fire in Emakhazeni
Fire in the twelve months to October 2026: 1,145 fire detections seen from space; 1,001 ha burnt in the 7 of those months with burnt area out. The most since 2012: 2024, 3,914.
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
- 1,145Fire detectionsNovember 2025 to October 2026
- 1,001 haBurnt7 of the twelve months; the rest not out yet
Show the numbers
| When or what | Figure |
|---|---|
| November 2025 | 48 fire detections |
| December 2025 | 28 fire detections |
| January 2026 | 47 fire detections |
| February 2026 | 93 fire detections |
| March 2026 | 4 fire detections |
| April 2026 | 8 fire detections |
| May 2026 | 22 fire detections |
| June 2026 | 65 fire detections |
| July 2026 | 270 fire detections |
| August 2026 | 164 fire detections |
| September 2026 | 187 fire detections |
| October 2026 | 209 fire detections |
| November 2025 | 36 ha burnt (0.008% of the place) |
| December 2025 | 0.0 ha burnt (0.000% of the place) |
| January 2026 | 71 ha burnt (0.015% of the place) |
| February 2026 | 140 ha burnt (0.030% of the place) |
| March 2026 | 45 ha burnt (0.009% of the place) |
| April 2026 | 234 ha burnt (0.049% of the place) |
| May 2026 | 475 ha burnt (0.10% 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 | 209 | 192 | 219 | not out yet | · | · |
| September 2026 | 187 | 177 | 169 | not out yet | · | · |
| August 2026 | 164 | 158 | 143 | not out yet | · | · |
| July 2026 | 270 | 260 | 365 | not out yet | · | · |
| June 2026 | 65 | 63 | 73 | not out yet | · | · |
| May 2026 | 22 | 22 | 31 | 475 ha | 0.10% | 100% |
| April 2026 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 234 ha | 0.049% | 100% |
| March 2026 | 4 | 4 | 7 | 45 ha | 0.009% | 100% |
| February 2026 | 93 | 88 | 81 | 140 ha | 0.030% | 100% |
| January 2026 | 47 | 45 | 39 | 71 ha | 0.015% | 100% |
| December 2025 | 28 | 19 | 40 | 0.0 ha | 0.000% | 100% |
| November 2025 | 48 | 42 | 51 | 36 ha | 0.008% | 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
- 20243,914 fire detections, most in July 2024; 62,647 ha burnt
- 20132,632 fire detections, most in August 2013
- 20232,459 fire detections, most in August 2023; 30,519 ha burnt
By hectares burnt (whole years from 2019): 2024, 62,647 ha (13.2% of the place); 2021, 33,372 ha (7.1% of the place); 2020, 31,971 ha (6.8% of the place).
Every year since 2012
| Year | Fire detections | Burnt | Share of the place |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 (10 months) | 1,069 | 5 months out | · |
| 2025 | 1,827 | 20,354 ha | 4.3% |
| 2024 | 3,914 | 62,647 ha | 13.2% |
| 2023 | 2,459 | 30,519 ha | 6.5% |
| 2022 | 1,475 | 19,808 ha | 4.2% |
| 2021 | 2,134 | 33,372 ha | 7.1% |
| 2020 | 2,321 | 31,971 ha | 6.8% |
| 2019 | 2,445 | 31,711 ha | 6.7% |
| 2018 | 1,690 | 6 months out | · |
| 2017 | 2,086 | · | · |
| 2016 | 1,721 | · | · |
| 2015 | 2,345 | · | · |
| 2014 | 2,001 | · | · |
| 2013 | 2,632 | · | · |
| 2012 (11 months) | 1,805 | · | · |
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 (Wonderfontein)
- Ward 2 (Stoffberg)
- Ward 3 (Siyathuthuka)
- Ward 4 (Sakhelwe, Dullstroom)
- Ward 5 (Swengat)
- Ward 6 (eNtokozweni (Machadodorp), Machadodorp)
- Ward 7 (Emgwenya (Waterval Boven), Waterval Boven)
- Ward 8 (eMakhazeni)
Places in each ward: © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Everything we hold for Emakhazeni, 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.