Free tools · Seen from space
Fire in Msukaligwa
Fire in the twelve months to October 2026: 1,306 fire detections seen from space; 572 ha burnt in the 7 of those months with burnt area out. The most since 2012: 2019, 2,265.
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
- 1,306Fire detectionsNovember 2025 to October 2026
- 572 haBurnt7 of the twelve months; the rest not out yet
Show the numbers
| When or what | Figure |
|---|---|
| November 2025 | 34 fire detections |
| December 2025 | 39 fire detections |
| January 2026 | 59 fire detections |
| February 2026 | 101 fire detections |
| March 2026 | 37 fire detections |
| April 2026 | 17 fire detections |
| May 2026 | 84 fire detections |
| June 2026 | 163 fire detections |
| July 2026 | 241 fire detections |
| August 2026 | 119 fire detections |
| September 2026 | 175 fire detections |
| October 2026 | 237 fire detections |
| November 2025 | 3.7 ha burnt (0.001% of the place) |
| December 2025 | 0.0 ha burnt (0.000% of the place) |
| January 2026 | 4.7 ha burnt (0.001% of the place) |
| February 2026 | 180 ha burnt (0.030% of the place) |
| March 2026 | 133 ha burnt (0.022% of the place) |
| April 2026 | 56 ha burnt (0.009% of the place) |
| May 2026 | 195 ha burnt (0.032% 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 | 237 | 219 | 265 | not out yet | · | · |
| September 2026 | 175 | 166 | 184 | not out yet | · | · |
| August 2026 | 119 | 118 | 152 | not out yet | · | · |
| July 2026 | 241 | 237 | 318 | not out yet | · | · |
| June 2026 | 163 | 161 | 226 | not out yet | · | · |
| May 2026 | 84 | 83 | 85 | 195 ha | 0.032% | 99% |
| April 2026 | 17 | 16 | 38 | 56 ha | 0.009% | 99% |
| March 2026 | 37 | 34 | 37 | 133 ha | 0.022% | 99% |
| February 2026 | 101 | 88 | 105 | 180 ha | 0.030% | 99% |
| January 2026 | 59 | 55 | 51 | 4.7 ha | 0.001% | 99% |
| December 2025 | 39 | 33 | 28 | 0.0 ha | 0.000% | 99% |
| November 2025 | 34 | 32 | 24 | 3.7 ha | 0.001% | 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
- 20192,265 fire detections, most in July 2019; 33,742 ha burnt
- 20182,097 fire detections, most in August 2018
- 20242,078 fire detections, most in August 2024; 43,189 ha burnt
By hectares burnt (whole years from 2019): 2024, 43,189 ha (7.2% of the place); 2019, 33,742 ha (5.6% of the place); 2021, 23,349 ha (3.9% of the place).
Every year since 2012
| Year | Fire detections | Burnt | Share of the place |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 (10 months) | 1,233 | 5 months out | · |
| 2025 | 1,076 | 9,453 ha | 1.6% |
| 2024 | 2,078 | 43,189 ha | 7.2% |
| 2023 | 2,023 | 22,662 ha | 3.8% |
| 2022 | 1,125 | 11,636 ha | 1.9% |
| 2021 | 1,833 | 23,349 ha | 3.9% |
| 2020 | 1,962 | 19,555 ha | 3.3% |
| 2019 | 2,265 | 33,742 ha | 5.6% |
| 2018 | 2,097 | 6 months out | · |
| 2017 | 1,855 | · | · |
| 2016 | 1,632 | · | · |
| 2015 | 1,771 | · | · |
| 2014 | 1,849 | · | · |
| 2013 | 1,614 | · | · |
| 2012 (11 months) | 1,489 | · | · |
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 (Wesselton)
- Ward 2
- Ward 3 (Cassim Park, De Bruin Park)
- Ward 4 (Wesselton)
- Ward 5 (Van Oudshoornstroom)
- Ward 6 (Wesselton)
- Ward 7 (Ermelo)
- Ward 8 (George Bothapark, Nederland Park)
- Ward 9 (Wesselton)
- Ward 10 (KwaDela, Davel)
- Ward 11 (Sheepmoor)
- Ward 12
- Ward 13 (Breyten)
- Ward 14 (KwaZanele)
- Ward 15 (Lothair)
- Ward 16 (Camden)
- Ward 17 (Wesselton)
- Ward 18 (New Ermelo)
- Ward 19 (Chrissiesmeer)
Places in each ward: © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Everything we hold for Msukaligwa, 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.