Free tools · Seen from space
Fire in Emalahleni
Fire in the twelve months to October 2026: 2,698 fire detections seen from space; 741 ha burnt in the 7 of those months with burnt area out. The most since 2012: 2019, 3,727.
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
- 2,698Fire detectionsNovember 2025 to October 2026
- 741 haBurnt7 of the twelve months; the rest not out yet
Show the numbers
| When or what | Figure |
|---|---|
| November 2025 | 32 fire detections |
| December 2025 | 28 fire detections |
| January 2026 | 32 fire detections |
| February 2026 | 24 fire detections |
| March 2026 | 19 fire detections |
| April 2026 | 25 fire detections |
| May 2026 | 32 fire detections |
| June 2026 | 158 fire detections |
| July 2026 | 577 fire detections |
| August 2026 | 742 fire detections |
| September 2026 | 452 fire detections |
| October 2026 | 577 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 | 0.0 ha burnt (0.000% of the place) |
| February 2026 | 0.0 ha burnt (0.000% of the place) |
| March 2026 | 77 ha burnt (0.029% of the place) |
| April 2026 | 144 ha burnt (0.054% of the place) |
| May 2026 | 520 ha burnt (0.19% 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 | 577 | 545 | 622 | not out yet | · | · |
| September 2026 | 452 | 437 | 442 | not out yet | · | · |
| August 2026 | 742 | 706 | 870 | not out yet | · | · |
| July 2026 | 577 | 565 | 727 | not out yet | · | · |
| June 2026 | 158 | 158 | 177 | not out yet | · | · |
| May 2026 | 32 | 31 | 49 | 520 ha | 0.19% | 99% |
| April 2026 | 25 | 25 | 23 | 144 ha | 0.054% | 99% |
| March 2026 | 19 | 19 | 19 | 77 ha | 0.029% | 99% |
| February 2026 | 24 | 23 | 23 | 0.0 ha | 0.000% | 99% |
| January 2026 | 32 | 31 | 37 | 0.0 ha | 0.000% | 99% |
| December 2025 | 28 | 26 | 26 | 0.0 ha | 0.000% | 99% |
| November 2025 | 32 | 31 | 28 | 0.0 ha | 0.000% | 99% |
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
- 20193,727 fire detections, most in July 2019; 24,620 ha burnt
- 20203,122 fire detections, most in July 2020; 25,198 ha burnt
- 20163,087 fire detections, most in August 2016
By hectares burnt (whole years from 2019): 2024, 27,404 ha (10.2% of the place); 2021, 26,329 ha (9.8% of the place); 2020, 25,198 ha (9.4% of the place).
Every year since 2012
| Year | Fire detections | Burnt | Share of the place |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 (10 months) | 2,638 | 5 months out | · |
| 2025 | 1,797 | 16,415 ha | 6.1% |
| 2024 | 2,537 | 27,404 ha | 10.2% |
| 2023 | 2,823 | 18,182 ha | 6.8% |
| 2022 | 2,606 | 16,419 ha | 6.1% |
| 2021 | 2,891 | 26,329 ha | 9.8% |
| 2020 | 3,122 | 25,198 ha | 9.4% |
| 2019 | 3,727 | 24,620 ha | 9.2% |
| 2018 | 2,551 | 6 months out | · |
| 2017 | 1,894 | · | · |
| 2016 | 3,087 | · | · |
| 2015 | 2,729 | · | · |
| 2014 | 2,096 | · | · |
| 2013 | 2,040 | · | · |
| 2012 (11 months) | 2,067 | · | · |
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 (Hlalanikahle)
- Ward 2 (Hlalanikahle)
- Ward 3
- Ward 4 (Hlalanikahle)
- Ward 5 (Hlalanikahle, Vosman)
- Ward 6 (KwaGuqa)
- Ward 7 (KwaGuqa)
- Ward 8 (Vosman)
- Ward 9 (Clewer)
- Ward 10 (Ferrobank, Schoongezicht)
- Ward 11 (Schoongezicht)
- Ward 12 (Pine Ridge, Klarinet)
- Ward 13 (Schoongezicht, Ferrobank)
- Ward 14
- Ward 15 (Klarinet)
- Ward 16 (Schoongezicht)
- Ward 17 (Schoongezicht)
- Ward 18 (Reyno Ridge)
- Ward 19 (Tasbet Park)
- Ward 20 (Blancheville, Die Heuwel)
- Ward 21 (Tasbet Park)
- Ward 22 (eMalahleni)
- Ward 23 (KwaGuqa, Hlalanikahle)
- Ward 24 (Del Judor, Fransville)
- Ward 25 (Greenside, Thubelihle)
- Ward 26 (Kriel)
- Ward 27 (Kriel)
- Ward 28 (Kendal)
- Ward 29 (Balmoral)
- Ward 30 (Voltargo, Madressa)
- Ward 31 (Phola)
- Ward 32 (Albion, Coalville)
- Ward 33 (Reyno Ridge)
- Ward 34 (Hoëveldpark)
- Ward 35 (Bulpan, Ferrobank)
- Ward 36 (Clewer)
Places in each ward: © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Everything we hold for Emalahleni, 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.