Free tools · Seen from space
Fire in Mbhashe
Fire in the twelve months to October 2026: 408 fire detections seen from space; 324 ha burnt in the 7 of those months with burnt area out. The most since 2012: 2013, 1,604.
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
- 408Fire detectionsNovember 2025 to October 2026
- 324 haBurnt7 of the twelve months; the rest not out yet
Show the numbers
| When or what | Figure |
|---|---|
| November 2025 | 29 fire detections |
| December 2025 | 4 fire detections |
| January 2026 | 17 fire detections |
| February 2026 | 1 fire detection |
| March 2026 | 3 fire detections |
| April 2026 | 14 fire detections |
| May 2026 | 63 fire detections |
| June 2026 | 82 fire detections |
| July 2026 | 107 fire detections |
| August 2026 | 83 fire detections |
| September 2026 | 2 fire detections |
| October 2026 | 3 fire detections |
| November 2025 | 15 ha burnt (0.004% 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 | 0.0 ha burnt (0.000% of the place) |
| March 2026 | 0.0 ha burnt (0.000% of the place) |
| April 2026 | 23 ha burnt (0.007% of the place) |
| May 2026 | 286 ha burnt (0.083% 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 | 3 | 3 | 2 | not out yet | · | · |
| September 2026 | 2 | 2 | 1 | not out yet | · | · |
| August 2026 | 83 | 82 | 69 | not out yet | · | · |
| July 2026 | 107 | 105 | 117 | not out yet | · | · |
| June 2026 | 82 | 82 | 88 | not out yet | · | · |
| May 2026 | 63 | 62 | 57 | 286 ha | 0.083% | 100% |
| April 2026 | 14 | 13 | 25 | 23 ha | 0.007% | 100% |
| March 2026 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 0.0 ha | 0.000% | 100% |
| February 2026 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0.0 ha | 0.000% | 100% |
| January 2026 | 17 | 13 | 20 | 0.0 ha | 0.000% | 100% |
| December 2025 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 0.0 ha | 0.000% | 100% |
| November 2025 | 29 | 25 | 38 | 15 ha | 0.004% | 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
- 20131,604 fire detections, most in September 2013
- 20231,265 fire detections, most in August 2023; 8,849 ha burnt
- 20241,259 fire detections, most in August 2024; 12,366 ha burnt
By hectares burnt (whole years from 2019): 2024, 12,366 ha (3.6% of the place); 2023, 8,849 ha (2.6% of the place); 2021, 8,792 ha (2.6% of the place).
Every year since 2012
| Year | Fire detections | Burnt | Share of the place |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 (10 months) | 375 | 5 months out | · |
| 2025 | 490 | 2,599 ha | 0.76% |
| 2024 | 1,259 | 12,366 ha | 3.6% |
| 2023 | 1,265 | 8,849 ha | 2.6% |
| 2022 | 418 | 1,434 ha | 0.42% |
| 2021 | 1,033 | 8,792 ha | 2.6% |
| 2020 | 846 | 5,184 ha | 1.5% |
| 2019 | 277 | 1,089 ha | 0.32% |
| 2018 | 470 | 6 months out | · |
| 2017 | 278 | · | · |
| 2016 | 518 | · | · |
| 2015 | 444 | · | · |
| 2014 | 502 | · | · |
| 2013 | 1,604 | · | · |
| 2012 (11 months) | 980 | · | · |
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 (Dutywa)
- Ward 2
- Ward 3
- Ward 4
- Ward 5
- Ward 6
- Ward 7
- Ward 8
- Ward 9
- Ward 10
- Ward 11 (Komkhulu, Maseti)
- Ward 12
- Ward 13 (Elliotdale)
- Ward 14 (Gwetyibeni, Nkonxeni)
- Ward 15
- Ward 16
- Ward 17
- Ward 18
- Ward 19
- Ward 20 (Hobeni)
- Ward 21 (Ndrimbakazi)
- Ward 22
- Ward 23
- Ward 24 (Gwadu, Ludiza)
- Ward 25 (Willowvale, Ntsimbini)
- Ward 26
- Ward 27 (eNtshatshongo, Lubomvini)
- Ward 28 (Nqileni)
- Ward 29
- Ward 30 (Komkhulu, KuLojika)
- Ward 31 (Mboqweni)
- Ward 32
Places in each ward: © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Everything we hold for Mbhashe, 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.