Free tools · Measured from space
How green it is where you are
Every ward, municipality and province, month by month since January 2017, against the 1984 to 2020 normal for the month, measured from space. Newest month: October 2026.
The greenness score (NDVI) is how green the land looks from space, from about 0 (bare ground, rock, water) to about 0.9 (dense green growth). It follows rain, season, crops and fire. A month’s figure is the mean over the whole place where the satellite saw the ground (clouds hide some).
By province
The newest month seen well, against a normal month.
Eastern Cape0.49, normal 0.34, well above normal
- Amahlathi
- Blue Crane Route
- Buffalo City
- Dr AB Xuma
- Dr Beyers Naude
- Elundini
- Emalahleni
- Enoch Mgijima
- Great Kei
- Ingquza Hill
- Intsika Yethu
- Inxuba Yethemba
- King Sabata Dalindyebo
- Kou-Kamma
- Kouga
- Kumkani Mhlontlo
- Makana
- Matatiele
- Mbhashe
- Mnquma
- Ndlambe
- Nelson Mandela Bay
- Ngqushwa
- Ntabankulu
- Nyandeni
- Port St Johns
- Raymond Mhlaba
- Sakhisizwe
- Senqu
- Sundays River Valley
- Umzimvubu
- Walter Sisulu
- Winnie Madikizela-Mandela
Free State0.39, normal 0.23, well above normal
Gauteng0.40, normal 0.26, well above normal
KwaZulu-Natal0.57, normal 0.42, well above normal
- Abaqulusi
- Alfred Duma
- Big Five Hlabisa
- Dannhauser
- Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma
- eDumbe
- Emadlangeni
- Endumeni
- eThekwini
- Greater Kokstad
- Impendle
- Inkosi Langalibalele
- Inkosi Mtubatuba
- Johannes Phumani Phungula
- Jozini
- KwaDukuza
- Mandeni
- Maphumulo
- Mfolozi
- Mkhambathini
- Mpofana
- Msinga
- Mthonjaneni
- Ndwedwe
- Newcastle
- Nkandla
- Nongoma
- Nqutu
- Okhahlamba
- Ray Nkonyeni
- Richmond
- The Msunduzi
- Ulundi
- Umdoni
- Umhlabuyalingana
- uMhlathuze
- uMlalazi
- uMngeni
- uMshwathi
- uMuziwabantu
- Umvoti
- Umzimkhulu
- Umzumbe
- uPhongolo
Limpopo0.40, normal 0.25, well above normal
Mpumalanga0.45, normal 0.31, well above normal
Northern Cape0.23, normal 0.16, well above normal
North West0.40, normal 0.22, well above normal
Western Cape0.32, normal 0.28, well above normal
Source
Measured from space: not a crop or grazing assessment.
How we worked this out
Two readings: Digital Earth Africa (Landsat and Sentinel-2, 30 m) and, as a check, Copernicus’s 300 m NDVI. Ward by ward they move together (median correlation 0.98). From 2022 Digital Earth Africa reads about 0.01 NDVI further above CLMS than it did in 2018 to 2021, so part of a recent “above normal” may be the sensors rather than the land; CLMS, read on its own, shows the same greener years (2022, 2025 and 2026).
The normal for each month is Digital Earth Africa’s 1984 to 2020 average from Landsat. Above or below normal is measured in standard deviations of that month over those years: half a standard deviation or more is “above” or “below”, one or more “well above” or “well below”.
What we changed: we averaged Digital Earth Africa’s monthly NDVI over each 2026 ward at 240 m (its own 8 by 8 averages of the 30 m pixels) and wards up to municipalities, districts and provinces by area; CLMS’s three 10-day NDVI images a month averaged the same way.
NDVI Anomaly and NDVI Climatology, Digital Earth Africa (CC BY 4.0), modified; Landsat imagery courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey; contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2017 to 2026. Second reading: generated using European Union’s Copernicus Land Monitoring Service information (NDVI 300 m, version 3), modified.
Dataset: greenness by ward, release of 12 November 2026.