Free tools · Seen from space
Fire in Sakhisizwe
Fire in the twelve months to October 2026: 613 fire detections seen from space; 220 ha burnt in the 7 of those months with burnt area out. The most since 2012: 2023, 1,976.
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
- 613Fire detectionsNovember 2025 to October 2026
- 220 haBurnt7 of the twelve months; the rest not out yet
Show the numbers
| When or what | Figure |
|---|---|
| November 2025 | 27 fire detections |
| December 2025 | 2 fire detections |
| January 2026 | 2 fire detections |
| February 2026 | 6 fire detections |
| March 2026 | 1 fire detection |
| April 2026 | 3 fire detections |
| May 2026 | 0 fire detections |
| June 2026 | 14 fire detections |
| July 2026 | 154 fire detections |
| August 2026 | 261 fire detections |
| September 2026 | 100 fire detections |
| October 2026 | 43 fire detections |
| November 2025 | 220 ha burnt (0.093% 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 | 0.0 ha burnt (0.000% of the place) |
| April 2026 | 0.0 ha burnt (0.000% of the place) |
| May 2026 | 0.0 ha burnt (0.000% 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 | 43 | 40 | 29 | not out yet | · | · |
| September 2026 | 100 | 99 | 101 | not out yet | · | · |
| August 2026 | 261 | 258 | 282 | not out yet | · | · |
| July 2026 | 154 | 152 | 87 | not out yet | · | · |
| June 2026 | 14 | 14 | 20 | not out yet | · | · |
| May 2026 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 ha | 0.000% | 100% |
| April 2026 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 0.0 ha | 0.000% | 100% |
| March 2026 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 0.0 ha | 0.000% | 100% |
| February 2026 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 0.0 ha | 0.000% | 100% |
| January 2026 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 0.0 ha | 0.000% | 100% |
| December 2025 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0.0 ha | 0.000% | 100% |
| November 2025 | 27 | 19 | 20 | 220 ha | 0.093% | 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
- 20231,976 fire detections, most in August 2023; 29,879 ha burnt
- 20211,225 fire detections, most in August 2021; 26,385 ha burnt
- 20131,210 fire detections, most in September 2013
By hectares burnt (whole years from 2019): 2023, 29,879 ha (12.6% of the place); 2021, 26,385 ha (11.1% of the place); 2024, 23,044 ha (9.7% of the place).
Every year since 2012
| Year | Fire detections | Burnt | Share of the place |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 (10 months) | 584 | 5 months out | · |
| 2025 | 930 | 18,218 ha | 7.7% |
| 2024 | 1,153 | 23,044 ha | 9.7% |
| 2023 | 1,976 | 29,879 ha | 12.6% |
| 2022 | 697 | 10,738 ha | 4.5% |
| 2021 | 1,225 | 26,385 ha | 11.1% |
| 2020 | 855 | 17,777 ha | 7.5% |
| 2019 | 674 | 14,265 ha | 6.0% |
| 2018 | 676 | 6 months out | · |
| 2017 | 809 | · | · |
| 2016 | 386 | · | · |
| 2015 | 514 | · | · |
| 2014 | 944 | · | · |
| 2013 | 1,210 | · | · |
| 2012 (11 months) | 1,139 | · | · |
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 (Khowa, Masibambane)
- Ward 2 (Polar Park, Vergenoeg)
- Ward 3 (Sifonondile, Trust)
- Ward 4 (Cala)
- Ward 5
- Ward 6
- Ward 7
- Ward 8
- Ward 9
Places in each ward: © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Everything we hold for Sakhisizwe, 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.