Free tools · Seen from space
Fire in Steve Tshwete
Fire in the twelve months to October 2026: 1,540 fire detections seen from space; 1,074 ha burnt in the 7 of those months with burnt area out. The most since 2012: 2019, 3,572.
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
- 1,540Fire detectionsNovember 2025 to October 2026
- 1,074 haBurnt7 of the twelve months; the rest not out yet
Show the numbers
| When or what | Figure |
|---|---|
| November 2025 | 13 fire detections |
| December 2025 | 23 fire detections |
| January 2026 | 13 fire detections |
| February 2026 | 20 fire detections |
| March 2026 | 3 fire detections |
| April 2026 | 7 fire detections |
| May 2026 | 15 fire detections |
| June 2026 | 120 fire detections |
| July 2026 | 361 fire detections |
| August 2026 | 386 fire detections |
| September 2026 | 319 fire detections |
| October 2026 | 260 fire detections |
| November 2025 | 0.0 ha burnt (0.000% of the place) |
| December 2025 | 20 ha burnt (0.005% of the place) |
| January 2026 | 17 ha burnt (0.004% of the place) |
| February 2026 | 217 ha burnt (0.055% of the place) |
| March 2026 | 595 ha burnt (0.15% of the place) |
| April 2026 | 63 ha burnt (0.016% of the place) |
| May 2026 | 162 ha burnt (0.041% 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 | 260 | 249 | 270 | not out yet | · | · |
| September 2026 | 319 | 312 | 287 | not out yet | · | · |
| August 2026 | 386 | 375 | 487 | not out yet | · | · |
| July 2026 | 361 | 354 | 412 | not out yet | · | · |
| June 2026 | 120 | 118 | 140 | not out yet | · | · |
| May 2026 | 15 | 15 | 12 | 162 ha | 0.041% | 99% |
| April 2026 | 7 | 7 | 12 | 63 ha | 0.016% | 99% |
| March 2026 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 595 ha | 0.15% | 99% |
| February 2026 | 20 | 19 | 8 | 217 ha | 0.055% | 99% |
| January 2026 | 13 | 12 | 17 | 17 ha | 0.004% | 99% |
| December 2025 | 23 | 22 | 17 | 20 ha | 0.005% | 99% |
| November 2025 | 13 | 13 | 11 | 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
- 20193,572 fire detections, most in July 2019; 36,766 ha burnt
- 20242,465 fire detections, most in August 2024; 36,681 ha burnt
- 20132,415 fire detections, most in August 2013
By hectares burnt (whole years from 2019): 2019, 36,766 ha (9.2% of the place); 2024, 36,681 ha (9.2% of the place); 2021, 30,260 ha (7.6% of the place).
Every year since 2012
| Year | Fire detections | Burnt | Share of the place |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 (10 months) | 1,504 | 5 months out | · |
| 2025 | 1,143 | 15,757 ha | 4.0% |
| 2024 | 2,465 | 36,681 ha | 9.2% |
| 2023 | 1,844 | 22,505 ha | 5.7% |
| 2022 | 1,429 | 16,464 ha | 4.1% |
| 2021 | 2,280 | 30,260 ha | 7.6% |
| 2020 | 2,030 | 27,232 ha | 6.8% |
| 2019 | 3,572 | 36,766 ha | 9.2% |
| 2018 | 2,042 | 6 months out | · |
| 2017 | 1,775 | · | · |
| 2016 | 1,763 | · | · |
| 2015 | 2,263 | · | · |
| 2014 | 2,035 | · | · |
| 2013 | 2,415 | · | · |
| 2012 (11 months) | 1,758 | · | · |
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 (Kwa-Zamokuhle)
- Ward 2 (Kwa-Zamokuhle)
- Ward 3 (Hendrina, Kwa-Zamokuhle)
- Ward 4 (Blinkpan, Douglas)
- Ward 5 (Eikeboom, Klipbank)
- Ward 6
- Ward 7 (Arnot)
- Ward 8 (Nasaret)
- Ward 9 (Selonsrivier)
- Ward 10 (Eastdene, Eastside Estate)
- Ward 11 (Eastdene, Middelburg)
- Ward 12 (Middelburg)
- Ward 13 (Middelburg, Eastdene)
- Ward 14 (Middelburg)
- Ward 15 (Middelburg, Shujayrah)
- Ward 16 (Shujayrah, Mhluzi)
- Ward 17 (Botshabelo)
- Ward 18 (Middelburg)
- Ward 19 (Mhluzi)
- Ward 20 (Mhluzi)
- Ward 21 (Mhluzi)
- Ward 22 (Mhluzi)
- Ward 23 (Mhluzi)
- Ward 24 (Mhluzi)
- Ward 25 (Mhluzi)
- Ward 26
- Ward 27
- Ward 28
- Ward 29 (Piet Tlou)
Places in each ward: © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Everything we hold for Steve Tshwete, 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.