Free tools · Seen from space
Fire in Sarah Baartman
Fire in the twelve months to October 2026: 2,259 fire detections seen from space; 18,653 ha burnt in the 7 of those months with burnt area out. The most since 2012: 2016, 6,861.
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
- 2,259Fire detectionsNovember 2025 to October 2026
- 18,653 haBurnt7 of the twelve months; the rest not out yet
Show the numbers
| When or what | Figure |
|---|---|
| November 2025 | 503 fire detections |
| December 2025 | 257 fire detections |
| January 2026 | 1,062 fire detections |
| February 2026 | 139 fire detections |
| March 2026 | 114 fire detections |
| April 2026 | 37 fire detections |
| May 2026 | 21 fire detections |
| June 2026 | 15 fire detections |
| July 2026 | 13 fire detections |
| August 2026 | 44 fire detections |
| September 2026 | 33 fire detections |
| October 2026 | 21 fire detections |
| November 2025 | 3,125 ha burnt (0.054% of the place) |
| December 2025 | 2,370 ha burnt (0.041% of the place) |
| January 2026 | 10,275 ha burnt (0.18% of the place) |
| February 2026 | 1,994 ha burnt (0.034% of the place) |
| March 2026 | 550 ha burnt (0.009% of the place) |
| April 2026 | 43 ha burnt (0.001% of the place) |
| May 2026 | 296 ha burnt (0.005% 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 | 21 | 21 | 41 | not out yet | · | · |
| September 2026 | 33 | 31 | 46 | not out yet | · | · |
| August 2026 | 44 | 43 | 82 | not out yet | · | · |
| July 2026 | 13 | 13 | 25 | not out yet | · | · |
| June 2026 | 15 | 15 | 11 | not out yet | · | · |
| May 2026 | 21 | 21 | 22 | 296 ha | 0.005% | 100% |
| April 2026 | 37 | 36 | 37 | 43 ha | 0.001% | 100% |
| March 2026 | 114 | 95 | 87 | 550 ha | 0.009% | 100% |
| February 2026 | 139 | 127 | 191 | 1,994 ha | 0.034% | 100% |
| January 2026 | 1,062 | 983 | 864 | 10,275 ha | 0.18% | 100% |
| December 2025 | 257 | 228 | 278 | 2,370 ha | 0.041% | 100% |
| November 2025 | 503 | 467 | 432 | 3,125 ha | 0.054% | 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
- 20166,861 fire detections, most in December 2016
- 20175,814 fire detections, most in June 2017
- 20145,638 fire detections, most in August 2014
By hectares burnt (whole years from 2019): 2024, 26,405 ha (0.45% of the place); 2025, 17,637 ha (0.30% of the place); 2019, 14,763 ha (0.25% of the place).
Every year since 2012
| Year | Fire detections | Burnt | Share of the place |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 (10 months) | 1,499 | 5 months out | · |
| 2025 | 2,147 | 17,637 ha | 0.30% |
| 2024 | 3,318 | 26,405 ha | 0.45% |
| 2023 | 1,572 | 8,116 ha | 0.14% |
| 2022 | 1,440 | 10,313 ha | 0.18% |
| 2021 | 1,826 | 10,487 ha | 0.18% |
| 2020 | 1,293 | 5,546 ha | 0.095% |
| 2019 | 2,093 | 14,763 ha | 0.25% |
| 2018 | 4,960 | 6 months out | · |
| 2017 | 5,814 | · | · |
| 2016 | 6,861 | · | · |
| 2015 | 1,442 | · | · |
| 2014 | 5,638 | · | · |
| 2013 | 3,586 | · | · |
| 2012 (11 months) | 1,920 | · | · |
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.
Everything we hold for Sarah Baartman, 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.