Free tools · Seen from space
Fire in Inkosi Mtubatuba
Fire in the twelve months to October 2026: 458 fire detections seen from space; 323 ha burnt in the 7 of those months with burnt area out. The most since 2012: 2014, 1,129.
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
- 458Fire detectionsNovember 2025 to October 2026
- 323 haBurnt7 of the twelve months; the rest not out yet
Show the numbers
| When or what | Figure |
|---|---|
| November 2025 | 6 fire detections |
| December 2025 | 8 fire detections |
| January 2026 | 0 fire detections |
| February 2026 | 20 fire detections |
| March 2026 | 3 fire detections |
| April 2026 | 14 fire detections |
| May 2026 | 58 fire detections |
| June 2026 | 23 fire detections |
| July 2026 | 105 fire detections |
| August 2026 | 73 fire detections |
| September 2026 | 114 fire detections |
| October 2026 | 34 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 | 13 ha burnt (0.006% of the place) |
| March 2026 | 0.0 ha burnt (0.000% of the place) |
| April 2026 | 98 ha burnt (0.050% of the place) |
| May 2026 | 212 ha burnt (0.11% 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 | 34 | 32 | 44 | not out yet | · | · |
| September 2026 | 114 | 105 | 106 | not out yet | · | · |
| August 2026 | 73 | 70 | 63 | not out yet | · | · |
| July 2026 | 105 | 101 | 131 | not out yet | · | · |
| June 2026 | 23 | 22 | 24 | not out yet | · | · |
| May 2026 | 58 | 56 | 74 | 212 ha | 0.11% | 84% |
| April 2026 | 14 | 14 | 15 | 98 ha | 0.050% | 84% |
| March 2026 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0.0 ha | 0.000% | 84% |
| February 2026 | 20 | 18 | 16 | 13 ha | 0.006% | 84% |
| January 2026 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0.0 ha | 0.000% | 84% |
| December 2025 | 8 | 8 | 2 | 0.0 ha | 0.000% | 84% |
| November 2025 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 0.0 ha | 0.000% | 84% |
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
- 20141,129 fire detections, most in July 2014
- 2013929 fire detections, most in June 2013
- 2012922 fire detections, most in August 2012
By hectares burnt (whole years from 2019): 2024, 4,794 ha (2.4% of the place); 2019, 2,457 ha (1.2% of the place); 2023, 1,862 ha (0.95% of the place).
Every year since 2012
| Year | Fire detections | Burnt | Share of the place |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 (10 months) | 444 | 5 months out | · |
| 2025 | 217 | 671 ha | 0.34% |
| 2024 | 534 | 4,794 ha | 2.4% |
| 2023 | 217 | 1,862 ha | 0.95% |
| 2022 | 215 | 1,096 ha | 0.55% |
| 2021 | 178 | 1,266 ha | 0.64% |
| 2020 | 252 | 800 ha | 0.41% |
| 2019 | 368 | 2,457 ha | 1.2% |
| 2018 | 470 | 6 months out | · |
| 2017 | 398 | · | · |
| 2016 | 455 | · | · |
| 2015 | 658 | · | · |
| 2014 | 1,129 | · | · |
| 2013 | 929 | · | · |
| 2012 (11 months) | 922 | · | · |
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 (Maphelane, Monzi)
- Ward 2 (Dukuduku)
- Ward 3 (Cape Vidal, Charters Creek)
- Ward 4 (Mtubatuba, River View)
- Ward 5
- Ward 6 (KwaMsane)
- Ward 7
- Ward 8
- Ward 9 (Ntweni)
- Ward 10
- Ward 11
- Ward 12
- Ward 13
- Ward 14
- Ward 15 (Myeki, Somkhele)
- Ward 16
- Ward 17
- Ward 18
- Ward 19
- Ward 20
- Ward 21
- Ward 22 (Nyalazi River)
- Ward 23
Places in each ward: © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Everything we hold for Inkosi Mtubatuba, 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.