Free tools · Seen from space
Fire in Okhahlamba
Fire in the twelve months to October 2026: 2,096 fire detections seen from space; 516 ha burnt in the 7 of those months with burnt area out. The most since 2012: 2013, 3,272.
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
- 2,096Fire detectionsNovember 2025 to October 2026
- 516 haBurnt7 of the twelve months; the rest not out yet
Show the numbers
| When or what | Figure |
|---|---|
| November 2025 | 1 fire detection |
| December 2025 | 5 fire detections |
| January 2026 | 0 fire detections |
| February 2026 | 1 fire detection |
| March 2026 | 3 fire detections |
| April 2026 | 1 fire detection |
| May 2026 | 17 fire detections |
| June 2026 | 190 fire detections |
| July 2026 | 534 fire detections |
| August 2026 | 775 fire detections |
| September 2026 | 410 fire detections |
| October 2026 | 159 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 | 0.0 ha burnt (0.000% of the place) |
| February 2026 | 0.0 ha burnt (0.000% of the place) |
| March 2026 | 155 ha burnt (0.039% of the place) |
| April 2026 | 6.8 ha burnt (0.002% of the place) |
| May 2026 | 354 ha burnt (0.089% 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 | 159 | 153 | 193 | not out yet | · | · |
| September 2026 | 410 | 397 | 467 | not out yet | · | · |
| August 2026 | 775 | 746 | 921 | not out yet | · | · |
| July 2026 | 534 | 523 | 670 | not out yet | · | · |
| June 2026 | 190 | 188 | 255 | not out yet | · | · |
| May 2026 | 17 | 16 | 17 | 354 ha | 0.089% | 99% |
| April 2026 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 6.8 ha | 0.002% | 99% |
| March 2026 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 155 ha | 0.039% | 99% |
| February 2026 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0.0 ha | 0.000% | 99% |
| January 2026 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 ha | 0.000% | 99% |
| December 2025 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 0.0 ha | 0.000% | 99% |
| November 2025 | 1 | 0 | 8 | 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
- 20133,272 fire detections, most in September 2013
- 20232,956 fire detections, most in July 2023; 41,829 ha burnt
- 20142,904 fire detections, most in July 2014
By hectares burnt (whole years from 2019): 2024, 48,425 ha (12.2% of the place); 2023, 41,829 ha (10.5% of the place); 2019, 39,745 ha (10.0% of the place).
Every year since 2012
| Year | Fire detections | Burnt | Share of the place |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 (10 months) | 2,090 | 5 months out | · |
| 2025 | 1,931 | 29,287 ha | 7.4% |
| 2024 | 2,560 | 48,425 ha | 12.2% |
| 2023 | 2,956 | 41,829 ha | 10.5% |
| 2022 | 1,994 | 27,986 ha | 7.0% |
| 2021 | 2,499 | 36,539 ha | 9.2% |
| 2020 | 2,475 | 30,776 ha | 7.8% |
| 2019 | 2,227 | 39,745 ha | 10.0% |
| 2018 | 2,122 | 6 months out | · |
| 2017 | 2,642 | · | · |
| 2016 | 1,234 | · | · |
| 2015 | 1,385 | · | · |
| 2014 | 2,904 | · | · |
| 2013 | 3,272 | · | · |
| 2012 (11 months) | 2,656 | · | · |
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 (Winterton)
- Ward 2 (Emmaus)
- Ward 3 (Cambalala House, Eastman's Ridge)
- Ward 4
- Ward 5
- Ward 6 (Bonjaneni, Nyusana)
- Ward 7 (Ngubela)
- Ward 8
- Ward 9
- Ward 10 (Drakensberg, Jagersrust)
- Ward 11 (Bergville, Acton Homes)
- Ward 12 (Woodford)
- Ward 13 (Geluksburg, Greenpoint)
- Ward 14 (Champagne Castle, Eagle Gorge)
- Ward 15 (Bethany)
Places in each ward: © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Everything we hold for Okhahlamba, 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.