Free tools · Seen from space
Fire in Umhlabuyalingana
Fire in the twelve months to October 2026: 1,090 fire detections seen from space; 740 ha burnt in the 7 of those months with burnt area out. The most since 2012: 2019, 3,265.
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
- 1,090Fire detectionsNovember 2025 to October 2026
- 740 haBurnt7 of the twelve months; the rest not out yet
Show the numbers
| When or what | Figure |
|---|---|
| November 2025 | 61 fire detections |
| December 2025 | 14 fire detections |
| January 2026 | 6 fire detections |
| February 2026 | 72 fire detections |
| March 2026 | 27 fire detections |
| April 2026 | 6 fire detections |
| May 2026 | 37 fire detections |
| June 2026 | 49 fire detections |
| July 2026 | 243 fire detections |
| August 2026 | 199 fire detections |
| September 2026 | 149 fire detections |
| October 2026 | 227 fire detections |
| November 2025 | 0.0 ha burnt (0.000% of the place) |
| December 2025 | 9.4 ha burnt (0.002% of the place) |
| January 2026 | 60 ha burnt (0.012% of the place) |
| February 2026 | 204 ha burnt (0.041% of the place) |
| March 2026 | 151 ha burnt (0.030% of the place) |
| April 2026 | 58 ha burnt (0.012% of the place) |
| May 2026 | 258 ha burnt (0.052% 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 | 227 | 198 | 246 | not out yet | · | · |
| September 2026 | 149 | 138 | 177 | not out yet | · | · |
| August 2026 | 199 | 188 | 193 | not out yet | · | · |
| July 2026 | 243 | 233 | 268 | not out yet | · | · |
| June 2026 | 49 | 45 | 53 | not out yet | · | · |
| May 2026 | 37 | 36 | 43 | 258 ha | 0.052% | 85% |
| April 2026 | 6 | 6 | 25 | 58 ha | 0.012% | 85% |
| March 2026 | 27 | 22 | 16 | 151 ha | 0.030% | 85% |
| February 2026 | 72 | 62 | 89 | 204 ha | 0.041% | 85% |
| January 2026 | 6 | 6 | 8 | 60 ha | 0.012% | 85% |
| December 2025 | 14 | 12 | 18 | 9.4 ha | 0.002% | 85% |
| November 2025 | 61 | 60 | 40 | 0.0 ha | 0.000% | 85% |
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
- 20193,265 fire detections, most in July 2019; 31,473 ha burnt
- 20142,907 fire detections, most in July 2014
- 20152,105 fire detections, most in August 2015
By hectares burnt (whole years from 2019): 2019, 31,473 ha (6.3% of the place); 2023, 10,860 ha (2.2% of the place); 2021, 9,999 ha (2.0% of the place).
Every year since 2012
| Year | Fire detections | Burnt | Share of the place |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 (10 months) | 1,015 | 5 months out | · |
| 2025 | 1,225 | 6,613 ha | 1.3% |
| 2024 | 1,080 | 9,058 ha | 1.8% |
| 2023 | 1,797 | 10,860 ha | 2.2% |
| 2022 | 821 | 7,894 ha | 1.6% |
| 2021 | 1,322 | 9,999 ha | 2.0% |
| 2020 | 1,066 | 4,283 ha | 0.86% |
| 2019 | 3,265 | 31,473 ha | 6.3% |
| 2018 | 715 | 6 months out | · |
| 2017 | 1,687 | · | · |
| 2016 | 678 | · | · |
| 2015 | 2,105 | · | · |
| 2014 | 2,907 | · | · |
| 2013 | 2,076 | · | · |
| 2012 (11 months) | 2,051 | · | · |
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 (Manguzi)
- Ward 2 (Sodwana Bay)
- Ward 3 (Mbazwana)
- Ward 4
- Ward 5
- Ward 6
- Ward 7
- Ward 8 (Mabibi, Rocktail Bay)
- Ward 9
- Ward 10 (Kosi Bay Rest Camp, Bhanga Nek)
- Ward 11
- Ward 12
- Ward 13
- Ward 14
- Ward 15
- Ward 16
- Ward 17
- Ward 18
- Ward 19 (Mseleni)
- Ward 20
Places in each ward: © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Everything we hold for Umhlabuyalingana, 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.