Free tools · Seen from space
Fire in Ulundi
Fire in the twelve months to October 2026: 1,137 fire detections seen from space; 444 ha burnt in the 7 of those months with burnt area out. The most since 2012: 2012, 2,477.
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
- 1,137Fire detectionsNovember 2025 to October 2026
- 444 haBurnt7 of the twelve months; the rest not out yet
Show the numbers
| When or what | Figure |
|---|---|
| November 2025 | 13 fire detections |
| December 2025 | 7 fire detections |
| January 2026 | 13 fire detections |
| February 2026 | 27 fire detections |
| March 2026 | 6 fire detections |
| April 2026 | 8 fire detections |
| May 2026 | 35 fire detections |
| June 2026 | 46 fire detections |
| July 2026 | 127 fire detections |
| August 2026 | 425 fire detections |
| September 2026 | 321 fire detections |
| October 2026 | 109 fire detections |
| November 2025 | 0.0 ha burnt (0.000% of the place) |
| December 2025 | 0.0 ha burnt (0.000% of the place) |
| January 2026 | 0.0 ha burnt (0.000% of the place) |
| February 2026 | 257 ha burnt (0.078% of the place) |
| March 2026 | 0.0 ha burnt (0.000% of the place) |
| April 2026 | 12 ha burnt (0.004% of the place) |
| May 2026 | 175 ha burnt (0.054% 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 | 109 | 98 | 104 | not out yet | · | · |
| September 2026 | 321 | 297 | 311 | not out yet | · | · |
| August 2026 | 425 | 401 | 484 | not out yet | · | · |
| July 2026 | 127 | 125 | 171 | not out yet | · | · |
| June 2026 | 46 | 46 | 58 | not out yet | · | · |
| May 2026 | 35 | 35 | 20 | 175 ha | 0.054% | 100% |
| April 2026 | 8 | 7 | 2 | 12 ha | 0.004% | 100% |
| March 2026 | 6 | 6 | 3 | 0.0 ha | 0.000% | 100% |
| February 2026 | 27 | 23 | 33 | 257 ha | 0.078% | 100% |
| January 2026 | 13 | 13 | 14 | 0.0 ha | 0.000% | 100% |
| December 2025 | 7 | 6 | 3 | 0.0 ha | 0.000% | 100% |
| November 2025 | 13 | 13 | 19 | 0.0 ha | 0.000% | 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
- 20122,477 fire detections, most in August 2012
- 20132,351 fire detections, most in August 2013
- 20211,973 fire detections, most in September 2021; 17,847 ha burnt
By hectares burnt (whole years from 2019): 2019, 26,089 ha (8.0% of the place); 2024, 19,855 ha (6.1% of the place); 2021, 17,847 ha (5.5% of the place).
Every year since 2012
| Year | Fire detections | Burnt | Share of the place |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 (10 months) | 1,117 | 5 months out | · |
| 2025 | 890 | 5,838 ha | 1.8% |
| 2024 | 1,234 | 19,855 ha | 6.1% |
| 2023 | 1,273 | 11,191 ha | 3.4% |
| 2022 | 796 | 7,774 ha | 2.4% |
| 2021 | 1,973 | 17,847 ha | 5.5% |
| 2020 | 603 | 4,749 ha | 1.5% |
| 2019 | 1,897 | 26,089 ha | 8.0% |
| 2018 | 852 | 6 months out | · |
| 2017 | 1,167 | · | · |
| 2016 | 216 | · | · |
| 2015 | 264 | · | · |
| 2014 | 1,567 | · | · |
| 2013 | 2,351 | · | · |
| 2012 (11 months) | 2,477 | · | · |
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
- Ward 2
- Ward 3
- Ward 4
- Ward 5
- Ward 6
- Ward 7 (Xolo)
- Ward 8 (Mahlabatini)
- Ward 9
- Ward 10 (Nkonjeni)
- Ward 11 (KwaSishwili)
- Ward 12 (Ulundi, Emdumezulu)
- Ward 13 (Mpungamhlophe)
- Ward 14
- Ward 15 (Lomo)
- Ward 16 (Babanango, Makhosini)
- Ward 17 (Kwezibomvu, Nkaphane)
- Ward 18 (Zihlabeni)
- Ward 19 (Emachibini)
- Ward 20 (Emkhalaqhude, Ezakhiweni)
- Ward 21 (Mkhazane, Ndlovane)
- Ward 22 (Zondela)
- Ward 23
- Ward 24
- Ward 25
Places in each ward: © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Everything we hold for Ulundi, 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.