Free tools · Seen from space
Fire in Intsika Yethu
Fire in the twelve months to October 2026: 300 fire detections seen from space; 196 ha burnt in the 7 of those months with burnt area out. The most since 2012: 2024, 1,586.
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
- 300Fire detectionsNovember 2025 to October 2026
- 196 haBurnt7 of the twelve months; the rest not out yet
Show the numbers
| When or what | Figure |
|---|---|
| November 2025 | 31 fire detections |
| December 2025 | 0 fire detections |
| January 2026 | 7 fire detections |
| February 2026 | 0 fire detections |
| March 2026 | 0 fire detections |
| April 2026 | 0 fire detections |
| May 2026 | 4 fire detections |
| June 2026 | 3 fire detections |
| July 2026 | 132 fire detections |
| August 2026 | 119 fire detections |
| September 2026 | 3 fire detections |
| October 2026 | 1 fire detection |
| November 2025 | 126 ha burnt (0.045% of the place) |
| December 2025 | 0.0 ha burnt (0.000% of the place) |
| January 2026 | 3.3 ha burnt (0.001% of the place) |
| February 2026 | 15 ha burnt (0.005% of the place) |
| March 2026 | 0.0 ha burnt (0.000% of the place) |
| April 2026 | 0.0 ha burnt (0.000% of the place) |
| May 2026 | 52 ha burnt (0.019% 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 | 1 | 1 | 2 | not out yet | · | · |
| September 2026 | 3 | 3 | 2 | not out yet | · | · |
| August 2026 | 119 | 118 | 135 | not out yet | · | · |
| July 2026 | 132 | 128 | 184 | not out yet | · | · |
| June 2026 | 3 | 3 | 12 | not out yet | · | · |
| May 2026 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 52 ha | 0.019% | 99% |
| April 2026 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 ha | 0.000% | 99% |
| March 2026 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0.0 ha | 0.000% | 99% |
| February 2026 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 15 ha | 0.005% | 99% |
| January 2026 | 7 | 2 | 22 | 3.3 ha | 0.001% | 99% |
| December 2025 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0.0 ha | 0.000% | 99% |
| November 2025 | 31 | 25 | 14 | 126 ha | 0.045% | 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
- 20241,586 fire detections, most in August 2024; 21,139 ha burnt
- 20231,554 fire detections, most in July 2023; 24,152 ha burnt
- 20131,095 fire detections, most in July 2013
By hectares burnt (whole years from 2019): 2023, 24,152 ha (8.6% of the place); 2024, 21,139 ha (7.5% of the place); 2021, 19,882 ha (7.1% of the place).
Every year since 2012
| Year | Fire detections | Burnt | Share of the place |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 (10 months) | 269 | 5 months out | · |
| 2025 | 393 | 6,444 ha | 2.3% |
| 2024 | 1,586 | 21,139 ha | 7.5% |
| 2023 | 1,554 | 24,152 ha | 8.6% |
| 2022 | 216 | 2,066 ha | 0.73% |
| 2021 | 1,074 | 19,882 ha | 7.1% |
| 2020 | 123 | 1,571 ha | 0.56% |
| 2019 | 269 | 2,218 ha | 0.79% |
| 2018 | 120 | 6 months out | · |
| 2017 | 116 | · | · |
| 2016 | 146 | · | · |
| 2015 | 166 | · | · |
| 2014 | 650 | · | · |
| 2013 | 1,095 | · | · |
| 2012 (11 months) | 802 | · | · |
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 (Banzi, Komkulu)
- Ward 2 (eLalini, eMatyolweni)
- Ward 3
- Ward 4 (Gandu, KuMaya)
- Ward 5 (Cube, Matshona)
- Ward 6 (Marawuleni)
- Ward 7 (Camama)
- Ward 8 (Mnyibashe, Ntshongeni)
- Ward 9 (Esixhotyeni, Jojweni)
- Ward 10 (eNdulini, Gesini)
- Ward 11 (Ndlunkulu, eNtwashwini)
- Ward 12 (Baku, Dratashe)
- Ward 13 (Gxwalibomvu)
- Ward 14 (Cofimvaba)
- Ward 15 (KwaMadikana, Leveni)
- Ward 16 (Kulufim, Ngxabangu)
- Ward 17 (KwaMzola, Mqorwane)
- Ward 18 (Damane, Gcina)
- Ward 19 (Gcina, KuMabangula)
- Ward 20 (Cuba, KuMangobomvu)
Places in each ward: © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Everything we hold for Intsika Yethu, 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.