Free tools · Seen from space
Fire in Kumkani Mhlontlo
Fire in the twelve months to October 2026: 1,162 fire detections seen from space; 418 ha burnt in the 7 of those months with burnt area out. The most since 2012: 2024, 1,756.
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
- 1,162Fire detectionsNovember 2025 to October 2026
- 418 haBurnt7 of the twelve months; the rest not out yet
Show the numbers
| When or what | Figure |
|---|---|
| November 2025 | 6 fire detections |
| December 2025 | 1 fire detection |
| January 2026 | 12 fire detections |
| February 2026 | 8 fire detections |
| March 2026 | 7 fire detections |
| April 2026 | 3 fire detections |
| May 2026 | 30 fire detections |
| June 2026 | 137 fire detections |
| July 2026 | 546 fire detections |
| August 2026 | 373 fire detections |
| September 2026 | 31 fire detections |
| October 2026 | 8 fire detections |
| November 2025 | 9.5 ha burnt (0.003% 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 | 7.4 ha burnt (0.003% of the place) |
| March 2026 | 0.0 ha burnt (0.000% of the place) |
| April 2026 | 15 ha burnt (0.005% of the place) |
| May 2026 | 386 ha burnt (0.13% 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 | 8 | 8 | 6 | not out yet | · | · |
| September 2026 | 31 | 31 | 24 | not out yet | · | · |
| August 2026 | 373 | 357 | 444 | not out yet | · | · |
| July 2026 | 546 | 525 | 746 | not out yet | · | · |
| June 2026 | 137 | 136 | 142 | not out yet | · | · |
| May 2026 | 30 | 30 | 22 | 386 ha | 0.13% | 100% |
| April 2026 | 3 | 3 | 14 | 15 ha | 0.005% | 100% |
| March 2026 | 7 | 7 | 14 | 0.0 ha | 0.000% | 100% |
| February 2026 | 8 | 7 | 20 | 7.4 ha | 0.003% | 100% |
| January 2026 | 12 | 9 | 12 | 0.0 ha | 0.000% | 100% |
| December 2025 | 1 | 1 | 10 | 0.0 ha | 0.000% | 100% |
| November 2025 | 6 | 2 | 8 | 9.5 ha | 0.003% | 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
- 20241,756 fire detections, most in August 2024; 41,290 ha burnt
- 20231,645 fire detections, most in July 2023; 28,829 ha burnt
- 20131,510 fire detections, most in July 2013
By hectares burnt (whole years from 2019): 2024, 41,290 ha (14.3% of the place); 2023, 28,829 ha (10.0% of the place); 2021, 19,425 ha (6.7% of the place).
Every year since 2012
| Year | Fire detections | Burnt | Share of the place |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 (10 months) | 1,155 | 5 months out | · |
| 2025 | 816 | 16,137 ha | 5.6% |
| 2024 | 1,756 | 41,290 ha | 14.3% |
| 2023 | 1,645 | 28,829 ha | 10.0% |
| 2022 | 633 | 9,900 ha | 3.4% |
| 2021 | 1,089 | 19,425 ha | 6.7% |
| 2020 | 597 | 10,474 ha | 3.6% |
| 2019 | 703 | 11,496 ha | 4.0% |
| 2018 | 440 | 6 months out | · |
| 2017 | 694 | · | · |
| 2016 | 443 | · | · |
| 2015 | 471 | · | · |
| 2014 | 1,289 | · | · |
| 2013 | 1,510 | · | · |
| 2012 (11 months) | 934 | · | · |
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 (Tsolo)
- Ward 7
- Ward 8
- Ward 9
- Ward 10
- Ward 11
- Ward 12
- Ward 13 (Shawbury Sustainable Village)
- Ward 14
- Ward 15 (Qumbu)
- Ward 16
- Ward 17
- Ward 18
- Ward 19
- Ward 20
- Ward 21
- Ward 22
- Ward 23
- Ward 24
- Ward 25
- Ward 26
Places in each ward: © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Everything we hold for Kumkani Mhlontlo, 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.