Free tools · Seen from space
Fire in Matjhabeng
Fire in the twelve months to October 2026: 423 fire detections seen from space; 48 ha burnt in the 7 of those months with burnt area out. The most since 2012: 2023, 1,188.
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
- 423Fire detectionsNovember 2025 to October 2026
- 48 haBurnt7 of the twelve months; the rest not out yet
Show the numbers
| When or what | Figure |
|---|---|
| November 2025 | 38 fire detections |
| December 2025 | 23 fire detections |
| January 2026 | 51 fire detections |
| February 2026 | 19 fire detections |
| March 2026 | 14 fire detections |
| April 2026 | 0 fire detections |
| May 2026 | 6 fire detections |
| June 2026 | 9 fire detections |
| July 2026 | 89 fire detections |
| August 2026 | 45 fire detections |
| September 2026 | 1 fire detection |
| October 2026 | 128 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 | 23 ha burnt (0.004% of the place) |
| February 2026 | 25 ha burnt (0.004% 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 | 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 | 128 | 101 | 96 | not out yet | · | · |
| September 2026 | 1 | 0 | 10 | not out yet | · | · |
| August 2026 | 45 | 44 | 84 | not out yet | · | · |
| July 2026 | 89 | 86 | 142 | not out yet | · | · |
| June 2026 | 9 | 9 | 19 | not out yet | · | · |
| May 2026 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 0.0 ha | 0.000% | 99% |
| April 2026 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 ha | 0.000% | 99% |
| March 2026 | 14 | 13 | 13 | 0.0 ha | 0.000% | 99% |
| February 2026 | 19 | 16 | 42 | 25 ha | 0.004% | 99% |
| January 2026 | 51 | 40 | 32 | 23 ha | 0.004% | 99% |
| December 2025 | 23 | 22 | 5 | 0.0 ha | 0.000% | 99% |
| November 2025 | 38 | 26 | 5 | 0.0 ha | 0.000% | 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
- 20231,188 fire detections, most in September 2023; 22,097 ha burnt
- 20211,093 fire detections, most in September 2021; 21,085 ha burnt
- 2022736 fire detections, most in June 2022; 12,279 ha burnt
By hectares burnt (whole years from 2019): 2023, 22,097 ha (3.9% of the place); 2021, 21,085 ha (3.7% of the place); 2022, 12,279 ha (2.2% of the place).
Every year since 2012
| Year | Fire detections | Burnt | Share of the place |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 (10 months) | 362 | 5 months out | · |
| 2025 | 256 | 1,274 ha | 0.22% |
| 2024 | 413 | 4,760 ha | 0.84% |
| 2023 | 1,188 | 22,097 ha | 3.9% |
| 2022 | 736 | 12,279 ha | 2.2% |
| 2021 | 1,093 | 21,085 ha | 3.7% |
| 2020 | 459 | 6,958 ha | 1.2% |
| 2019 | 92 | 384 ha | 0.066% |
| 2018 | 329 | 6 months out | · |
| 2017 | 475 | · | · |
| 2016 | 38 | · | · |
| 2015 | 229 | · | · |
| 2014 | 389 | · | · |
| 2013 | 102 | · | · |
| 2012 (11 months) | 294 | · | · |
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 (Ventersburg, Aldam)
- Ward 2
- Ward 3 (Hennenman)
- Ward 4 (Whites)
- Ward 5 (Meloding)
- Ward 6 (Meloding)
- Ward 7
- Ward 8 (Harmony, Saaiplaas)
- Ward 9 (Kitty, Merriespruit)
- Ward 10 (Riebeeckstad, Kutlwanong)
- Ward 11 (Bronville)
- Ward 12 (New Jerusalem, Oppenheimer Park)
- Ward 13 (Orange Grove)
- Ward 14 (Hani Park, Orange Grove)
- Ward 15 (Orange Grove, Oppenheimer Park)
- Ward 16 (Orange Grove)
- Ward 17 (Orange Grove)
- Ward 18 (Kutlwanong)
- Ward 19
- Ward 20 (Kutlwanong)
- Ward 21
- Ward 22
- Ward 23 (Hani Park)
- Ward 24
- Ward 25 (Riebeeckstad)
- Ward 26 (Thabong, New Jerusalem)
- Ward 27 (Dagbreek, Jim Fouche Park)
- Ward 28 (Riebeeckstad, Rehola)
- Ward 29 (Thabong)
- Ward 30 (Rehola, Reitz Park)
- Ward 31 (Thabong, Rehola)
- Ward 32 (Welkom, Doorn)
- Ward 33 (Lake View, Lake View South)
- Ward 34 (Bedelia, Flamingo Park)
- Ward 35 (Ross Kent East, Ross Kent North)
- Ward 36 (Allanridge, Odendaalsrus)
Places in each ward: © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Everything we hold for Matjhabeng, 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.