Free tools · Seen from space
Fire in Swartland
Fire in the twelve months to October 2026: 575 fire detections seen from space; 12,392 ha burnt in the 7 of those months with burnt area out. The most since 2012: 2022, 1,047.
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
- 575Fire detectionsNovember 2025 to October 2026
- 12,392 haBurnt7 of the twelve months; the rest not out yet
Show the numbers
| When or what | Figure |
|---|---|
| November 2025 | 18 fire detections |
| December 2025 | 18 fire detections |
| January 2026 | 26 fire detections |
| February 2026 | 26 fire detections |
| March 2026 | 245 fire detections |
| April 2026 | 194 fire detections |
| May 2026 | 20 fire detections |
| June 2026 | 8 fire detections |
| July 2026 | 2 fire detections |
| August 2026 | 2 fire detections |
| September 2026 | 10 fire detections |
| October 2026 | 6 fire detections |
| November 2025 | 75 ha burnt (0.020% of the place) |
| December 2025 | 88 ha burnt (0.024% of the place) |
| January 2026 | 112 ha burnt (0.030% of the place) |
| February 2026 | 169 ha burnt (0.045% of the place) |
| March 2026 | 9,966 ha burnt (2.7% of the place) |
| April 2026 | 1,969 ha burnt (0.53% of the place) |
| May 2026 | 13 ha burnt (0.004% 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 | 6 | 4 | 5 | not out yet | · | · |
| September 2026 | 10 | 10 | 13 | not out yet | · | · |
| August 2026 | 2 | 2 | 3 | not out yet | · | · |
| July 2026 | 2 | 2 | 8 | not out yet | · | · |
| June 2026 | 8 | 8 | 7 | not out yet | · | · |
| May 2026 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 13 ha | 0.004% | 100% |
| April 2026 | 194 | 181 | 174 | 1,969 ha | 0.53% | 100% |
| March 2026 | 245 | 195 | 233 | 9,966 ha | 2.7% | 100% |
| February 2026 | 26 | 21 | 24 | 169 ha | 0.045% | 100% |
| January 2026 | 26 | 21 | 15 | 112 ha | 0.030% | 100% |
| December 2025 | 18 | 15 | 28 | 88 ha | 0.024% | 100% |
| November 2025 | 18 | 15 | 21 | 75 ha | 0.020% | 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
- 20221,047 fire detections, most in March 2022; 13,974 ha burnt
- 20241,017 fire detections, most in March 2024; 15,904 ha burnt
- 2021765 fire detections, most in April 2021; 9,948 ha burnt
By hectares burnt (whole years from 2019): 2025, 28,353 ha (7.6% of the place); 2024, 15,904 ha (4.3% of the place); 2022, 13,974 ha (3.8% of the place).
Every year since 2012
| Year | Fire detections | Burnt | Share of the place |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 (10 months) | 539 | 5 months out | · |
| 2025 | 541 | 28,353 ha | 7.6% |
| 2024 | 1,017 | 15,904 ha | 4.3% |
| 2023 | 469 | 3,296 ha | 0.89% |
| 2022 | 1,047 | 13,974 ha | 3.8% |
| 2021 | 765 | 9,948 ha | 2.7% |
| 2020 | 460 | 7,190 ha | 1.9% |
| 2019 | 732 | 8,517 ha | 2.3% |
| 2018 | 453 | 6 months out | · |
| 2017 | 747 | · | · |
| 2016 | 518 | · | · |
| 2015 | 756 | · | · |
| 2014 | 643 | · | · |
| 2013 | 655 | · | · |
| 2012 (11 months) | 492 | · | · |
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 (Bothasig, Hooikraal)
- Ward 2 (Moorreesburg, Doornkloof)
- Ward 3 (Oupos, Riebeek-Wes)
- Ward 4 (Chatsworth, Kalbaskraal)
- Ward 5 (Darling, Yzerfontein)
- Ward 6 (Nuwedorp, Darling)
- Ward 7 (Abbotsdale, Abbotsdale West)
- Ward 8 (Malmesbury)
- Ward 9 (Wesbank)
- Ward 10 (Wesbank, Mount Royal)
- Ward 11 (Wesbank)
- Ward 12 (Esterhof, Riebeek-Kasteel)
Places in each ward: © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Everything we hold for Swartland, 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.