Free tools · Seen from space
Fire in Inkosi Langalibalele
Fire in the twelve months to October 2026: 1,386 fire detections seen from space; 369 ha burnt in the 7 of those months with burnt area out. The most since 2012: 2013, 1,984.
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
- 1,386Fire detectionsNovember 2025 to October 2026
- 369 haBurnt7 of the twelve months; the rest not out yet
Show the numbers
| When or what | Figure |
|---|---|
| November 2025 | 4 fire detections |
| December 2025 | 4 fire detections |
| January 2026 | 1 fire detection |
| February 2026 | 18 fire detections |
| March 2026 | 4 fire detections |
| April 2026 | 4 fire detections |
| May 2026 | 28 fire detections |
| June 2026 | 154 fire detections |
| July 2026 | 530 fire detections |
| August 2026 | 394 fire detections |
| September 2026 | 183 fire detections |
| October 2026 | 62 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 | 7.6 ha burnt (0.002% of the place) |
| March 2026 | 26 ha burnt (0.008% of the place) |
| April 2026 | 32 ha burnt (0.009% of the place) |
| May 2026 | 303 ha burnt (0.089% 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 | 62 | 57 | 65 | not out yet | · | · |
| September 2026 | 183 | 166 | 150 | not out yet | · | · |
| August 2026 | 394 | 373 | 428 | not out yet | · | · |
| July 2026 | 530 | 520 | 610 | not out yet | · | · |
| June 2026 | 154 | 149 | 148 | not out yet | · | · |
| May 2026 | 28 | 27 | 27 | 303 ha | 0.089% | 100% |
| April 2026 | 4 | 3 | 7 | 32 ha | 0.009% | 100% |
| March 2026 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 26 ha | 0.008% | 100% |
| February 2026 | 18 | 18 | 18 | 7.6 ha | 0.002% | 100% |
| January 2026 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0.0 ha | 0.000% | 100% |
| December 2025 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 0.0 ha | 0.000% | 100% |
| November 2025 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 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
- 20131,984 fire detections, most in August 2013
- 20211,776 fire detections, most in July 2021; 26,748 ha burnt
- 20121,650 fire detections, most in July 2012
By hectares burnt (whole years from 2019): 2024, 37,353 ha (11.0% of the place); 2020, 32,568 ha (9.6% of the place); 2023, 29,655 ha (8.7% of the place).
Every year since 2012
| Year | Fire detections | Burnt | Share of the place |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 (10 months) | 1,378 | 5 months out | · |
| 2025 | 760 | 12,157 ha | 3.6% |
| 2024 | 1,526 | 37,353 ha | 11.0% |
| 2023 | 1,601 | 29,655 ha | 8.7% |
| 2022 | 936 | 17,258 ha | 5.1% |
| 2021 | 1,776 | 26,748 ha | 7.9% |
| 2020 | 1,624 | 32,568 ha | 9.6% |
| 2019 | 1,038 | 21,134 ha | 6.2% |
| 2018 | 923 | 6 months out | · |
| 2017 | 1,264 | · | · |
| 2016 | 977 | · | · |
| 2015 | 648 | · | · |
| 2014 | 1,436 | · | · |
| 2013 | 1,984 | · | · |
| 2012 (11 months) | 1,650 | · | · |
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
- Ward 3
- Ward 4
- Ward 5
- Ward 6
- Ward 7
- Ward 8
- Ward 9 (Wembesi)
- Ward 10 (Fordsburg)
- Ward 11
- Ward 12 (KwaDlamini, The Lakes)
- Ward 13
- Ward 14
- Ward 15
- Ward 16
- Ward 17 (Estcourt)
- Ward 18 (Rensburgsdrif)
- Ward 19
- Ward 20 (Weenen)
- Ward 21 (KwaNobamba)
- Ward 22
- Ward 23 (Kwezi)
- Ward 24 (Frere)
Places in each ward: © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Everything we hold for Inkosi Langalibalele, 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.