Free tools · Seen from space
Fire in Nkandla
Fire in the twelve months to October 2026: 1,449 fire detections seen from space; 1,801 ha burnt in the 7 of those months with burnt area out. The most since 2012: 2019, 2,191.
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
- 1,449Fire detectionsNovember 2025 to October 2026
- 1,801 haBurnt7 of the twelve months; the rest not out yet
Show the numbers
| When or what | Figure |
|---|---|
| November 2025 | 13 fire detections |
| December 2025 | 17 fire detections |
| January 2026 | 22 fire detections |
| February 2026 | 41 fire detections |
| March 2026 | 5 fire detections |
| April 2026 | 21 fire detections |
| May 2026 | 152 fire detections |
| June 2026 | 91 fire detections |
| July 2026 | 275 fire detections |
| August 2026 | 419 fire detections |
| September 2026 | 242 fire detections |
| October 2026 | 151 fire detections |
| November 2025 | 25 ha burnt (0.013% of the place) |
| December 2025 | 0.0 ha burnt (0.000% of the place) |
| January 2026 | 42 ha burnt (0.023% of the place) |
| February 2026 | 251 ha burnt (0.14% of the place) |
| March 2026 | 0.0 ha burnt (0.000% of the place) |
| April 2026 | 123 ha burnt (0.067% of the place) |
| May 2026 | 1,360 ha burnt (0.74% 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 | 151 | 141 | 152 | not out yet | · | · |
| September 2026 | 242 | 219 | 282 | not out yet | · | · |
| August 2026 | 419 | 404 | 413 | not out yet | · | · |
| July 2026 | 275 | 270 | 300 | not out yet | · | · |
| June 2026 | 91 | 89 | 120 | not out yet | · | · |
| May 2026 | 152 | 152 | 158 | 1,360 ha | 0.74% | 100% |
| April 2026 | 21 | 21 | 19 | 123 ha | 0.067% | 100% |
| March 2026 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 0.0 ha | 0.000% | 100% |
| February 2026 | 41 | 39 | 64 | 251 ha | 0.14% | 100% |
| January 2026 | 22 | 18 | 29 | 42 ha | 0.023% | 100% |
| December 2025 | 17 | 14 | 8 | 0.0 ha | 0.000% | 100% |
| November 2025 | 13 | 12 | 28 | 25 ha | 0.013% | 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
- 20192,191 fire detections, most in July 2019; 20,411 ha burnt
- 20131,889 fire detections, most in August 2013
- 20211,839 fire detections, most in July 2021; 14,695 ha burnt
By hectares burnt (whole years from 2019): 2024, 25,495 ha (13.9% of the place); 2019, 20,411 ha (11.1% of the place); 2021, 14,695 ha (8.0% of the place).
Every year since 2012
| Year | Fire detections | Burnt | Share of the place |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 (10 months) | 1,419 | 5 months out | · |
| 2025 | 1,039 | 8,152 ha | 4.4% |
| 2024 | 1,839 | 25,495 ha | 13.9% |
| 2023 | 1,727 | 12,570 ha | 6.8% |
| 2022 | 1,150 | 8,609 ha | 4.7% |
| 2021 | 1,839 | 14,695 ha | 8.0% |
| 2020 | 1,511 | 11,460 ha | 6.2% |
| 2019 | 2,191 | 20,411 ha | 11.1% |
| 2018 | 981 | 6 months out | · |
| 2017 | 1,371 | · | · |
| 2016 | 773 | · | · |
| 2015 | 443 | · | · |
| 2014 | 1,379 | · | · |
| 2013 | 1,889 | · | · |
| 2012 (11 months) | 1,616 | · | · |
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 (Sangeni)
- Ward 4
- Ward 5 (Nkandla)
- Ward 6 (Mabengela, Ndweni)
- Ward 7
- Ward 8 (Ngoje, Qudeni)
- Ward 9
- Ward 10
- Ward 11 (Benedict Mission)
- Ward 12 (KwaGugu)
- Ward 13
- Ward 14 (Nxamalala)
Places in each ward: © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Everything we hold for Nkandla, 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.