Free tools · Seen from space
Fire in KwaZulu-Natal
Fire in the twelve months to October 2026: 36,207 fire detections seen from space; 17,633 ha burnt in the 7 of those months with burnt area out. The most since 2012: 2013, 58,993.
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
- 36,207Fire detectionsNovember 2025 to October 2026
- 17,633 haBurnt7 of the twelve months; the rest not out yet
Show the numbers
| When or what | Figure |
|---|---|
| November 2025 | 650 fire detections |
| December 2025 | 249 fire detections |
| January 2026 | 487 fire detections |
| February 2026 | 908 fire detections |
| March 2026 | 370 fire detections |
| April 2026 | 439 fire detections |
| May 2026 | 1,969 fire detections |
| June 2026 | 3,458 fire detections |
| July 2026 | 8,852 fire detections |
| August 2026 | 9,737 fire detections |
| September 2026 | 6,202 fire detections |
| October 2026 | 2,886 fire detections |
| November 2025 | 240 ha burnt (0.003% of the place) |
| December 2025 | 39 ha burnt (0.000% of the place) |
| January 2026 | 632 ha burnt (0.007% of the place) |
| February 2026 | 2,235 ha burnt (0.024% of the place) |
| March 2026 | 1,613 ha burnt (0.017% of the place) |
| April 2026 | 3,327 ha burnt (0.035% of the place) |
| May 2026 | 9,547 ha burnt (0.10% 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 | 2,886 | 2,613 | 2,875 | not out yet | · | · |
| September 2026 | 6,202 | 5,755 | 6,142 | not out yet | · | · |
| August 2026 | 9,737 | 9,307 | 10,948 | not out yet | · | · |
| July 2026 | 8,852 | 8,524 | 10,386 | not out yet | · | · |
| June 2026 | 3,458 | 3,385 | 3,773 | not out yet | · | · |
| May 2026 | 1,969 | 1,896 | 2,132 | 9,547 ha | 0.10% | 98% |
| April 2026 | 439 | 419 | 523 | 3,327 ha | 0.035% | 98% |
| March 2026 | 370 | 349 | 438 | 1,613 ha | 0.017% | 98% |
| February 2026 | 908 | 815 | 956 | 2,235 ha | 0.024% | 98% |
| January 2026 | 487 | 430 | 525 | 632 ha | 0.007% | 98% |
| December 2025 | 249 | 220 | 292 | 39 ha | 0.000% | 98% |
| November 2025 | 650 | 593 | 771 | 240 ha | 0.003% | 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
- 201358,993 fire detections, most in August 2013
- 201952,934 fire detections, most in July 2019; 655,508 ha burnt
- 201450,753 fire detections, most in July 2014
By hectares burnt (whole years from 2019): 2024, 736,368 ha (7.8% of the place); 2019, 655,508 ha (6.9% of the place); 2023, 508,560 ha (5.4% of the place).
Every year since 2012
| Year | Fire detections | Burnt | Share of the place |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 (10 months) | 35,308 | 5 months out | · |
| 2025 | 29,676 | 307,853 ha | 3.3% |
| 2024 | 44,580 | 736,368 ha | 7.8% |
| 2023 | 42,817 | 508,560 ha | 5.4% |
| 2022 | 30,930 | 378,399 ha | 4.0% |
| 2021 | 43,807 | 502,056 ha | 5.3% |
| 2020 | 43,366 | 498,097 ha | 5.3% |
| 2019 | 52,934 | 655,508 ha | 6.9% |
| 2018 | 36,095 | 6 months out | · |
| 2017 | 38,758 | · | · |
| 2016 | 23,475 | · | · |
| 2015 | 27,634 | · | · |
| 2014 | 50,753 | · | · |
| 2013 | 58,993 | · | · |
| 2012 (11 months) | 48,665 | · | · |
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.
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.