Free tools · Seen from space
Fire in Stellenbosch
Fire in the twelve months to October 2026: 986 fire detections seen from space; 9,481 ha burnt in the 7 of those months with burnt area out. The most since 2012: 2021, 732.
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
- 986Fire detectionsNovember 2025 to October 2026
- 9,481 haBurnt7 of the twelve months; the rest not out yet
Show the numbers
| When or what | Figure |
|---|---|
| November 2025 | 7 fire detections |
| December 2025 | 45 fire detections |
| January 2026 | 908 fire detections |
| February 2026 | 4 fire detections |
| March 2026 | 2 fire detections |
| April 2026 | 5 fire detections |
| May 2026 | 0 fire detections |
| June 2026 | 0 fire detections |
| July 2026 | 0 fire detections |
| August 2026 | 2 fire detections |
| September 2026 | 9 fire detections |
| October 2026 | 4 fire detections |
| November 2025 | 11 ha burnt (0.014% of the place) |
| December 2025 | 61 ha burnt (0.074% of the place) |
| January 2026 | 9,376 ha burnt (11.3% of the place) |
| February 2026 | 33 ha burnt (0.040% 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 | 4 | 4 | 5 | not out yet | · | · |
| September 2026 | 9 | 9 | 7 | not out yet | · | · |
| August 2026 | 2 | 2 | 2 | not out yet | · | · |
| July 2026 | 0 | 0 | 0 | not out yet | · | · |
| June 2026 | 0 | 0 | 1 | not out yet | · | · |
| May 2026 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0.0 ha | 0.000% | 100% |
| April 2026 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 0.0 ha | 0.000% | 100% |
| March 2026 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 0.0 ha | 0.000% | 100% |
| February 2026 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 33 ha | 0.040% | 100% |
| January 2026 | 908 | 836 | 821 | 9,376 ha | 11.3% | 100% |
| December 2025 | 45 | 36 | 26 | 61 ha | 0.074% | 100% |
| November 2025 | 7 | 6 | 10 | 11 ha | 0.014% | 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
- 2021732 fire detections, most in February 2021; 7,653 ha burnt
- 2015406 fire detections, most in March 2015
- 2016396 fire detections, most in January 2016
By hectares burnt (whole years from 2019): 2021, 7,653 ha (9.2% of the place); 2019, 3,757 ha (4.5% of the place); 2025, 707 ha (0.85% of the place).
Every year since 2012
| Year | Fire detections | Burnt | Share of the place |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 (10 months) | 934 | 5 months out | · |
| 2025 | 205 | 707 ha | 0.85% |
| 2024 | 85 | 29 ha | 0.034% |
| 2023 | 55 | 202 ha | 0.24% |
| 2022 | 80 | 349 ha | 0.42% |
| 2021 | 732 | 7,653 ha | 9.2% |
| 2020 | 81 | 316 ha | 0.38% |
| 2019 | 310 | 3,757 ha | 4.5% |
| 2018 | 127 | 6 months out | · |
| 2017 | 226 | · | · |
| 2016 | 396 | · | · |
| 2015 | 406 | · | · |
| 2014 | 76 | · | · |
| 2013 | 173 | · | · |
| 2012 (11 months) | 51 | · | · |
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 (Franschhoek, Skelmhoek)
- Ward 2 (Groendal, La Motte)
- Ward 3 (Languedoc, Groot-Drakenstein)
- Ward 4 (Kylemore, Pniël)
- Ward 5 (Arbeidslus)
- Ward 6 (Idasvallei, Rozendal)
- Ward 7 (Karindal, Mostertsdrift)
- Ward 8 (Stellenbosch)
- Ward 9 (Die Boord, Krigeville)
- Ward 10 (La Colline)
- Ward 11 (Onder-Papegaaiberg)
- Ward 12
- Ward 13 (Khayamandi)
- Ward 14 (Khayamandi)
- Ward 15 (Khayamandi)
- Ward 16 (Cloetesville)
- Ward 17 (Weltevreden Hills)
- Ward 18 (Klapmuts)
- Ward 19 (De Novo, Elsenburg)
- Ward 20 (Faure, Raithby)
- Ward 21 (Paradyskloof, Technopark)
- Ward 22 (Bo-Dalsig, Brandwacht)
- Ward 23 (Dennesig)
Places in each ward: © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Everything we hold for Stellenbosch, 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.