Free tools · Seen from space
Fire in Kou-Kamma
Fire in the twelve months to October 2026: 1,044 fire detections seen from space; 7,057 ha burnt in the 7 of those months with burnt area out. The most since 2012: 2016, 2,698.
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
- 1,044Fire detectionsNovember 2025 to October 2026
- 7,057 haBurnt7 of the twelve months; the rest not out yet
Show the numbers
| When or what | Figure |
|---|---|
| November 2025 | 350 fire detections |
| December 2025 | 17 fire detections |
| January 2026 | 543 fire detections |
| February 2026 | 31 fire detections |
| March 2026 | 69 fire detections |
| April 2026 | 2 fire detections |
| May 2026 | 1 fire detection |
| June 2026 | 0 fire detections |
| July 2026 | 1 fire detection |
| August 2026 | 17 fire detections |
| September 2026 | 11 fire detections |
| October 2026 | 2 fire detections |
| November 2025 | 2,250 ha burnt (0.62% of the place) |
| December 2025 | 153 ha burnt (0.042% of the place) |
| January 2026 | 4,153 ha burnt (1.1% of the place) |
| February 2026 | 127 ha burnt (0.035% of the place) |
| March 2026 | 374 ha burnt (0.10% of the place) |
| April 2026 | 0.0 ha burnt (0.000% of the place) |
| May 2026 | 0.0 ha burnt (0.000% 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 | 2 | 2 | 2 | not out yet | · | · |
| September 2026 | 11 | 9 | 15 | not out yet | · | · |
| August 2026 | 17 | 17 | 34 | not out yet | · | · |
| July 2026 | 1 | 1 | 3 | not out yet | · | · |
| June 2026 | 0 | 0 | 2 | not out yet | · | · |
| May 2026 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0.0 ha | 0.000% | 99% |
| April 2026 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0.0 ha | 0.000% | 99% |
| March 2026 | 69 | 62 | 36 | 374 ha | 0.10% | 99% |
| February 2026 | 31 | 29 | 36 | 127 ha | 0.035% | 99% |
| January 2026 | 543 | 520 | 491 | 4,153 ha | 1.1% | 99% |
| December 2025 | 17 | 14 | 19 | 153 ha | 0.042% | 99% |
| November 2025 | 350 | 337 | 307 | 2,250 ha | 0.62% | 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
- 20162,698 fire detections, most in December 2016
- 20182,199 fire detections, most in November 2018
- 20171,615 fire detections, most in March 2017
By hectares burnt (whole years from 2019): 2025, 7,879 ha (2.2% of the place); 2024, 6,555 ha (1.8% of the place); 2021, 5,837 ha (1.6% of the place).
Every year since 2012
| Year | Fire detections | Burnt | Share of the place |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 (10 months) | 677 | 5 months out | · |
| 2025 | 954 | 7,879 ha | 2.2% |
| 2024 | 890 | 6,555 ha | 1.8% |
| 2023 | 507 | 2,813 ha | 0.77% |
| 2022 | 666 | 2,999 ha | 0.82% |
| 2021 | 885 | 5,837 ha | 1.6% |
| 2020 | 302 | 643 ha | 0.17% |
| 2019 | 682 | 2,707 ha | 0.74% |
| 2018 | 2,199 | 6 months out | · |
| 2017 | 1,615 | · | · |
| 2016 | 2,698 | · | · |
| 2015 | 538 | · | · |
| 2014 | 1,209 | · | · |
| 2013 | 711 | · | · |
| 2012 (11 months) | 493 | · | · |
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 (Langkloof, Krakeelrivier)
- Ward 2 (Joubertina, Louterwater)
- Ward 3 (Ravinia, Twee Riviere)
- Ward 4 (Kagiso Heights, Kareedouw)
- Ward 5 (Clarkson, Oubosstrand)
- Ward 6 (Kleinbos, Coldstream)
Places in each ward: © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Everything we hold for Kou-Kamma, 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.