Free tools · Seen from space
Fire in Raymond Mhlaba
Fire in the twelve months to October 2026: 352 fire detections seen from space; 626 ha burnt in the 7 of those months with burnt area out. The most since 2012: 2024, 2,228.
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
- 352Fire detectionsNovember 2025 to October 2026
- 626 haBurnt7 of the twelve months; the rest not out yet
Show the numbers
| When or what | Figure |
|---|---|
| November 2025 | 31 fire detections |
| December 2025 | 16 fire detections |
| January 2026 | 14 fire detections |
| February 2026 | 17 fire detections |
| March 2026 | 6 fire detections |
| April 2026 | 2 fire detections |
| May 2026 | 55 fire detections |
| June 2026 | 2 fire detections |
| July 2026 | 27 fire detections |
| August 2026 | 98 fire detections |
| September 2026 | 51 fire detections |
| October 2026 | 33 fire detections |
| November 2025 | 48 ha burnt (0.008% of the place) |
| December 2025 | 0.0 ha burnt (0.000% of the place) |
| January 2026 | 26 ha burnt (0.004% of the place) |
| February 2026 | 16 ha burnt (0.002% of the place) |
| March 2026 | 0.0 ha burnt (0.000% of the place) |
| April 2026 | 0.0 ha burnt (0.000% of the place) |
| May 2026 | 536 ha burnt (0.084% 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 | 33 | 31 | 51 | not out yet | · | · |
| September 2026 | 51 | 50 | 78 | not out yet | · | · |
| August 2026 | 98 | 97 | 106 | not out yet | · | · |
| July 2026 | 27 | 27 | 40 | not out yet | · | · |
| June 2026 | 2 | 2 | 7 | not out yet | · | · |
| May 2026 | 55 | 54 | 44 | 536 ha | 0.084% | 100% |
| April 2026 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 0.0 ha | 0.000% | 100% |
| March 2026 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 0.0 ha | 0.000% | 100% |
| February 2026 | 17 | 14 | 10 | 16 ha | 0.002% | 100% |
| January 2026 | 14 | 12 | 23 | 26 ha | 0.004% | 100% |
| December 2025 | 16 | 12 | 14 | 0.0 ha | 0.000% | 100% |
| November 2025 | 31 | 27 | 33 | 48 ha | 0.008% | 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
- 20242,228 fire detections, most in August 2024; 21,690 ha burnt
- 20131,434 fire detections, most in August 2013
- 20231,220 fire detections, most in September 2023; 12,572 ha burnt
By hectares burnt (whole years from 2019): 2024, 21,690 ha (3.4% of the place); 2023, 12,572 ha (2.0% of the place); 2021, 6,321 ha (0.99% of the place).
Every year since 2012
| Year | Fire detections | Burnt | Share of the place |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 (10 months) | 305 | 5 months out | · |
| 2025 | 451 | 3,144 ha | 0.50% |
| 2024 | 2,228 | 21,690 ha | 3.4% |
| 2023 | 1,220 | 12,572 ha | 2.0% |
| 2022 | 297 | 2,144 ha | 0.34% |
| 2021 | 660 | 6,321 ha | 0.99% |
| 2020 | 430 | 2,016 ha | 0.32% |
| 2019 | 869 | 4,047 ha | 0.64% |
| 2018 | 556 | 6 months out | · |
| 2017 | 373 | · | · |
| 2016 | 649 | · | · |
| 2015 | 400 | · | · |
| 2014 | 959 | · | · |
| 2013 | 1,434 | · | · |
| 2012 (11 months) | 850 | · | · |
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 (Gqumashe, Mtwaku)
- Ward 3 (Kwatinidubu, KwaMaqoma)
- Ward 4 (Seymour, Cimezile)
- Ward 5 (Mavuso, Nonzwakazi)
- Ward 6 (Alice)
- Ward 7 (Bedford, Bezuidenhoutville)
- Ward 8 (KwaMaqoma, Newtown)
- Ward 9 (Glen Lynden, eKuphumleni)
- Ward 10 (Binfield, Hala)
- Ward 11
- Ward 12 (Bergplaas, Gwali)
- Ward 13 (New Brighton, Nyarha)
- Ward 14 (eMatsamraleni, eMgwanisheni)
- Ward 15 (Dyamala, Jojozi)
- Ward 16 (Cwaru, Mfiki)
- Ward 17 (Debe Valley, Qolo)
- Ward 18 (Calderwood)
- Ward 19 (Kwatinidubu)
- Ward 20 (Magaleni, KwaGcani)
- Ward 21 (Adelaide, Old Lingellethu)
Places in each ward: © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Everything we hold for Raymond Mhlaba, 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.