Free tools · Seen from space
Fire in Thembisile Hani
Fire in the twelve months to October 2026: 1,480 fire detections seen from space; 1,488 ha burnt in the 7 of those months with burnt area out. The most since 2012: 2023, 2,422.
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
- 1,480Fire detectionsNovember 2025 to October 2026
- 1,488 haBurnt7 of the twelve months; the rest not out yet
Show the numbers
| When or what | Figure |
|---|---|
| November 2025 | 17 fire detections |
| December 2025 | 14 fire detections |
| January 2026 | 4 fire detections |
| February 2026 | 14 fire detections |
| March 2026 | 21 fire detections |
| April 2026 | 5 fire detections |
| May 2026 | 35 fire detections |
| June 2026 | 60 fire detections |
| July 2026 | 620 fire detections |
| August 2026 | 321 fire detections |
| September 2026 | 152 fire detections |
| October 2026 | 217 fire detections |
| November 2025 | 61 ha burnt (0.025% of the place) |
| December 2025 | 20 ha burnt (0.008% of the place) |
| January 2026 | 46 ha burnt (0.019% of the place) |
| February 2026 | 79 ha burnt (0.033% of the place) |
| March 2026 | 79 ha burnt (0.033% of the place) |
| April 2026 | 429 ha burnt (0.18% of the place) |
| May 2026 | 774 ha burnt (0.33% 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 | 217 | 194 | 189 | not out yet | · | · |
| September 2026 | 152 | 140 | 178 | not out yet | · | · |
| August 2026 | 321 | 287 | 345 | not out yet | · | · |
| July 2026 | 620 | 608 | 1,107 | not out yet | · | · |
| June 2026 | 60 | 59 | 65 | not out yet | · | · |
| May 2026 | 35 | 32 | 35 | 774 ha | 0.33% | 100% |
| April 2026 | 5 | 4 | 14 | 429 ha | 0.18% | 100% |
| March 2026 | 21 | 19 | 28 | 79 ha | 0.033% | 100% |
| February 2026 | 14 | 11 | 9 | 79 ha | 0.033% | 100% |
| January 2026 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 46 ha | 0.019% | 100% |
| December 2025 | 14 | 12 | 18 | 20 ha | 0.008% | 100% |
| November 2025 | 17 | 14 | 16 | 61 ha | 0.025% | 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
- 20232,422 fire detections, most in August 2023; 44,889 ha burnt
- 20131,970 fire detections, most in August 2013
- 20151,881 fire detections, most in July 2015
By hectares burnt (whole years from 2019): 2024, 62,933 ha (26.4% of the place); 2023, 44,889 ha (18.8% of the place); 2019, 44,015 ha (18.5% of the place).
Every year since 2012
| Year | Fire detections | Burnt | Share of the place |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 (10 months) | 1,449 | 5 months out | · |
| 2025 | 1,286 | 29,004 ha | 12.2% |
| 2024 | 1,880 | 62,933 ha | 26.4% |
| 2023 | 2,422 | 44,889 ha | 18.8% |
| 2022 | 1,042 | 30,821 ha | 12.9% |
| 2021 | 1,881 | 43,696 ha | 18.3% |
| 2020 | 1,020 | 23,380 ha | 9.8% |
| 2019 | 1,656 | 44,015 ha | 18.5% |
| 2018 | 1,825 | 6 months out | · |
| 2017 | 1,798 | · | · |
| 2016 | 670 | · | · |
| 2015 | 1,881 | · | · |
| 2014 | 1,562 | · | · |
| 2013 | 1,970 | · | · |
| 2012 (11 months) | 1,406 | · | · |
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 (Moloto)
- Ward 2 (Moloto)
- Ward 3
- Ward 4 (MANDELA, MSHOLOZI)
- Ward 5 (Enkeldoornoog-B, Thembalethu)
- Ward 6 (Phola Park, PHOLA PARK)
- Ward 7 (Boekenhouthoek)
- Ward 8 (Verena, Verena-D)
- Ward 9 (Buhlebuzile, Enkeldoornoog-C)
- Ward 10 (Maza, Stoffberg)
- Ward 11 (Chief Magodongo)
- Ward 12 (Mgibe)
- Ward 13
- Ward 14 (MOUNTAINVIEW, Zustershoek)
- Ward 15 (Somaroboro-E, Somaroboro-F)
- Ward 16 (Vlaklaagte)
- Ward 17 (Thokoza)
- Ward 18 (Vezubuhle)
- Ward 19 (Kameelpoortnek, Klipfontein)
- Ward 20
- Ward 21 (Vlaklaagte)
- Ward 22 (Kameelpoortnek-C)
- Ward 23 (Phumula)
- Ward 24 (Die Bron, Matshipe)
- Ward 25
- Ward 26
- Ward 27 (Mathy's Zyn Loop)
- Ward 28 (Kwaggafontein)
- Ward 29
- Ward 30 (Somaroboro-G, Somaroboro-H)
- Ward 31 (Vrischgewaagd)
- Ward 32 (KwaMhlanga, Kwamahlanga-C)
- Ward 33 (Kings Park)
Places in each ward: © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Everything we hold for Thembisile Hani, 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.