Free tools · Seen from space
Fire in Mkhondo
Fire in the twelve months to October 2026: 2,172 fire detections seen from space; 1,410 ha burnt in the 7 of those months with burnt area out. The most since 2012: 2012, 3,086.
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
- 2,172Fire detectionsNovember 2025 to October 2026
- 1,410 haBurnt7 of the twelve months; the rest not out yet
Show the numbers
| When or what | Figure |
|---|---|
| November 2025 | 72 fire detections |
| December 2025 | 80 fire detections |
| January 2026 | 73 fire detections |
| February 2026 | 123 fire detections |
| March 2026 | 80 fire detections |
| April 2026 | 27 fire detections |
| May 2026 | 228 fire detections |
| June 2026 | 217 fire detections |
| July 2026 | 413 fire detections |
| August 2026 | 259 fire detections |
| September 2026 | 408 fire detections |
| October 2026 | 192 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 | 14 ha burnt (0.003% of the place) |
| February 2026 | 181 ha burnt (0.037% of the place) |
| March 2026 | 725 ha burnt (0.15% of the place) |
| April 2026 | 134 ha burnt (0.027% of the place) |
| May 2026 | 356 ha burnt (0.073% 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 | 192 | 166 | 241 | not out yet | · | · |
| September 2026 | 408 | 383 | 427 | not out yet | · | · |
| August 2026 | 259 | 241 | 327 | not out yet | · | · |
| July 2026 | 413 | 401 | 633 | not out yet | · | · |
| June 2026 | 217 | 212 | 260 | not out yet | · | · |
| May 2026 | 228 | 221 | 229 | 356 ha | 0.073% | 99% |
| April 2026 | 27 | 27 | 45 | 134 ha | 0.027% | 99% |
| March 2026 | 80 | 73 | 125 | 725 ha | 0.15% | 99% |
| February 2026 | 123 | 109 | 107 | 181 ha | 0.037% | 99% |
| January 2026 | 73 | 61 | 113 | 14 ha | 0.003% | 99% |
| December 2025 | 80 | 71 | 68 | 0.0 ha | 0.000% | 99% |
| November 2025 | 72 | 61 | 92 | 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
- 20123,086 fire detections, most in June 2012
- 20243,069 fire detections, most in July 2024; 32,666 ha burnt
- 20193,058 fire detections, most in July 2019; 30,366 ha burnt
By hectares burnt (whole years from 2019): 2024, 32,666 ha (6.7% of the place); 2019, 30,366 ha (6.2% of the place); 2021, 23,840 ha (4.9% of the place).
Every year since 2012
| Year | Fire detections | Burnt | Share of the place |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 (10 months) | 2,020 | 5 months out | · |
| 2025 | 2,420 | 17,473 ha | 3.6% |
| 2024 | 3,069 | 32,666 ha | 6.7% |
| 2023 | 2,837 | 22,628 ha | 4.6% |
| 2022 | 2,358 | 17,331 ha | 3.5% |
| 2021 | 2,574 | 23,840 ha | 4.9% |
| 2020 | 2,717 | 21,642 ha | 4.4% |
| 2019 | 3,058 | 30,366 ha | 6.2% |
| 2018 | 2,816 | 6 months out | · |
| 2017 | 2,931 | · | · |
| 2016 | 2,504 | · | · |
| 2015 | 2,385 | · | · |
| 2014 | 2,947 | · | · |
| 2013 | 2,814 | · | · |
| 2012 (11 months) | 3,086 | · | · |
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 (Dirkiesdorp)
- Ward 4 (Iswepe, Panbult)
- Ward 5
- Ward 6 (Evergreen Lifestyle Estate)
- Ward 7 (Piet Retief)
- Ward 8
- Ward 9
- Ward 10 (Ethandakukhanya, Kempville)
- Ward 11
- Ward 12
- Ward 13
- Ward 14
- Ward 15 (Moolman)
- Ward 16
- Ward 17
- Ward 18
- Ward 19 (Amsterdam)
Places in each ward: © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Everything we hold for Mkhondo, 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.