Free tools · Seen from space
Fire in King Cetshwayo
Fire in the twelve months to October 2026: 3,682 fire detections seen from space; 3,270 ha burnt in the 7 of those months with burnt area out. The most since 2012: 2014, 6,236.
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
- 3,682Fire detectionsNovember 2025 to October 2026
- 3,270 haBurnt7 of the twelve months; the rest not out yet
Show the numbers
| When or what | Figure |
|---|---|
| November 2025 | 55 fire detections |
| December 2025 | 28 fire detections |
| January 2026 | 84 fire detections |
| February 2026 | 227 fire detections |
| March 2026 | 47 fire detections |
| April 2026 | 68 fire detections |
| May 2026 | 441 fire detections |
| June 2026 | 280 fire detections |
| July 2026 | 671 fire detections |
| August 2026 | 964 fire detections |
| September 2026 | 476 fire detections |
| October 2026 | 341 fire detections |
| November 2025 | 61 ha burnt (0.007% of the place) |
| December 2025 | 0.0 ha burnt (0.000% of the place) |
| January 2026 | 90 ha burnt (0.011% of the place) |
| February 2026 | 568 ha burnt (0.069% of the place) |
| March 2026 | 59 ha burnt (0.007% of the place) |
| April 2026 | 259 ha burnt (0.032% of the place) |
| May 2026 | 2,233 ha burnt (0.27% 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 | 341 | 319 | 300 | not out yet | · | · |
| September 2026 | 476 | 430 | 539 | not out yet | · | · |
| August 2026 | 964 | 930 | 966 | not out yet | · | · |
| July 2026 | 671 | 648 | 828 | not out yet | · | · |
| June 2026 | 280 | 271 | 342 | not out yet | · | · |
| May 2026 | 441 | 427 | 446 | 2,233 ha | 0.27% | 99% |
| April 2026 | 68 | 65 | 87 | 259 ha | 0.032% | 99% |
| March 2026 | 47 | 43 | 42 | 59 ha | 0.007% | 99% |
| February 2026 | 227 | 211 | 258 | 568 ha | 0.069% | 99% |
| January 2026 | 84 | 70 | 112 | 90 ha | 0.011% | 99% |
| December 2025 | 28 | 24 | 25 | 0.0 ha | 0.000% | 99% |
| November 2025 | 55 | 53 | 82 | 61 ha | 0.007% | 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
- 20146,236 fire detections, most in June 2014
- 20126,128 fire detections, most in August 2012
- 20195,696 fire detections, most in July 2019; 40,492 ha burnt
By hectares burnt (whole years from 2019): 2024, 47,867 ha (5.8% of the place); 2019, 40,492 ha (4.9% of the place); 2021, 31,919 ha (3.9% of the place).
Every year since 2012
| Year | Fire detections | Burnt | Share of the place |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 (10 months) | 3,599 | 5 months out | · |
| 2025 | 2,601 | 13,484 ha | 1.6% |
| 2024 | 4,234 | 47,867 ha | 5.8% |
| 2023 | 3,853 | 21,118 ha | 2.6% |
| 2022 | 2,555 | 13,226 ha | 1.6% |
| 2021 | 4,908 | 31,919 ha | 3.9% |
| 2020 | 3,786 | 20,201 ha | 2.5% |
| 2019 | 5,696 | 40,492 ha | 4.9% |
| 2018 | 2,447 | 6 months out | · |
| 2017 | 3,672 | · | · |
| 2016 | 2,017 | · | · |
| 2015 | 2,034 | · | · |
| 2014 | 6,236 | · | · |
| 2013 | 5,511 | · | · |
| 2012 (11 months) | 6,128 | · | · |
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.
Everything we hold for King Cetshwayo, 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.