Free tools · Seen from space
Fire in Theewaterskloof
Fire in the twelve months to October 2026: 1,046 fire detections seen from space; 12,021 ha burnt in the 7 of those months with burnt area out. The most since 2012: 2019, 1,362.
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
- 1,046Fire detectionsNovember 2025 to October 2026
- 12,021 haBurnt7 of the twelve months; the rest not out yet
Show the numbers
| When or what | Figure |
|---|---|
| November 2025 | 373 fire detections |
| December 2025 | 158 fire detections |
| January 2026 | 371 fire detections |
| February 2026 | 8 fire detections |
| March 2026 | 45 fire detections |
| April 2026 | 41 fire detections |
| May 2026 | 8 fire detections |
| June 2026 | 9 fire detections |
| July 2026 | 5 fire detections |
| August 2026 | 8 fire detections |
| September 2026 | 11 fire detections |
| October 2026 | 9 fire detections |
| November 2025 | 3,602 ha burnt (1.1% of the place) |
| December 2025 | 2,962 ha burnt (0.91% of the place) |
| January 2026 | 4,338 ha burnt (1.3% of the place) |
| February 2026 | 16 ha burnt (0.005% of the place) |
| March 2026 | 447 ha burnt (0.14% of the place) |
| April 2026 | 656 ha burnt (0.20% 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 | 9 | 9 | 23 | not out yet | · | · |
| September 2026 | 11 | 10 | 12 | not out yet | · | · |
| August 2026 | 8 | 8 | 5 | not out yet | · | · |
| July 2026 | 5 | 5 | 10 | not out yet | · | · |
| June 2026 | 9 | 9 | 14 | not out yet | · | · |
| May 2026 | 8 | 8 | 6 | 0.0 ha | 0.000% | 98% |
| April 2026 | 41 | 40 | 57 | 656 ha | 0.20% | 98% |
| March 2026 | 45 | 39 | 39 | 447 ha | 0.14% | 98% |
| February 2026 | 8 | 7 | 1 | 16 ha | 0.005% | 98% |
| January 2026 | 371 | 334 | 407 | 4,338 ha | 1.3% | 98% |
| December 2025 | 158 | 149 | 185 | 2,962 ha | 0.91% | 98% |
| November 2025 | 373 | 343 | 305 | 3,602 ha | 1.1% | 98% |
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
- 20191,362 fire detections, most in January 2019; 20,081 ha burnt
- 20251,256 fire detections, most in November 2025; 11,895 ha burnt
- 20151,204 fire detections, most in February 2015
By hectares burnt (whole years from 2019): 2019, 20,081 ha (6.2% of the place); 2025, 11,895 ha (3.6% of the place); 2022, 7,390 ha (2.3% of the place).
Every year since 2012
| Year | Fire detections | Burnt | Share of the place |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 (10 months) | 515 | 5 months out | · |
| 2025 | 1,256 | 11,895 ha | 3.6% |
| 2024 | 871 | 5,017 ha | 1.5% |
| 2023 | 223 | 1,105 ha | 0.34% |
| 2022 | 758 | 7,390 ha | 2.3% |
| 2021 | 499 | 3,037 ha | 0.93% |
| 2020 | 104 | 89 ha | 0.027% |
| 2019 | 1,362 | 20,081 ha | 6.2% |
| 2018 | 424 | 6 months out | · |
| 2017 | 583 | · | · |
| 2016 | 622 | · | · |
| 2015 | 1,204 | · | · |
| 2014 | 587 | · | · |
| 2013 | 333 | · | · |
| 2012 (11 months) | 468 | · | · |
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 (Riviersonderend, Jongensklip)
- Ward 2 (Genadendal, Greyton)
- Ward 3 (Caledon, Bergsig)
- Ward 4 (Myddleton, Uitsig)
- Ward 5 (Villiersdorp, Goniwe Park)
- Ward 6 (Nuedorp)
- Ward 7 (Botrivier, Vredendal)
- Ward 8
- Ward 9 (Elgin)
- Ward 10 (De Rust Village, Lebanon)
- Ward 11 (Grabouw)
- Ward 12 (Siyanyanzela)
- Ward 13 (Pineview, Steenbras)
- Ward 14 (Pineview, Steenbras)
Places in each ward: © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Everything we hold for Theewaterskloof, 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.