Free tools · Measured from space

Heat in Ba-Phalaborwa

Summer 2025/26: the ground in Ba-Phalaborwa reached about 40 °C on clear mornings. That is the ground (roofs, roads, soil), not the air. The 7th hottest of 10 summers since 2014.

Land surface temperature is how hot the ground itself is: roofs, roads, bare soil and leaves, as a satellite sees them from above. Landsat passes at about 10 in the morning and sees only through clear skies. It is not the air temperature a weather station gives: on a sunny day the ground is often 10 to 20 degrees hotter than the air, and hard, dark, dry surfaces heat up most while trees, grass and water stay cooler.

What it is not: not the afternoon peak, not the night, not the air you feel in the shade, and not a reading at any one house. A month with clouds rests on few clear looks.

Summer 2025/26

40.4 °CThe ground, not the airDecember to February, clear mornings
2015/16Hottest summer since 201449.0 °C; the coolest was 2021/22, 36.8 °C

Every summer since 1987

Each summer (December to February, named by the year it ends) on clear mornings. Bars start at 31 °C, not zero. Darker: Landsat 8 and 9 (from 2014); lighter: Landsat 5 and 7. A gap is a summer seen too little.

Show the numbers

Land surface temperature each summer, 1987 to 2026: every figure
When or what	Figure
Summer 1986 to 87	41.4 °C
Summer 1990 to 91	34.7 °C
Summer 1992 to 93	36.4 °C
Summer 1994 to 95	37.9 °C
Summer 1997 to 98	40.0 °C
Summer 1998 to 99	33.8 °C
Summer 2000 to 01	40.9 °C
Summer 2001 to 02	36.6 °C
Summer 2002 to 03	44.8 °C
Summer 2006 to 07	47.3 °C
Summer 2009 to 10	51.3 °C
Summer 2012 to 13	41.2 °C
Summer 2015 to 16	49.0 °C
Summer 2017 to 18	47.3 °C
Summer 2018 to 19	38.8 °C
Summer 2019 to 20	42.5 °C
Summer 2020 to 21	40.9 °C
Summer 2021 to 22	36.8 °C
Summer 2022 to 23	40.1 °C
Summer 2023 to 24	41.4 °C
Summer 2024 to 25	42.3 °C
Summer 2025 to 26	40.4 °C

The shape of a year

Each month’s average since 2014, clear mornings. Bars start at 24 °C.

Show the numbers

Land surface temperature by calendar month, since 2014: every figure
When or what	Figure
January	39.7 °C
February	39.2 °C
March	36.6 °C
April	33.9 °C
May	30.0 °C
June	27.0 °C
July	27.2 °C
August	32.1 °C
September	40.7 °C
October	45.4 °C
November	48.0 °C
December	45.9 °C

Warmest and coolest wards

Each ward’s summers against Ba-Phalaborwa’s average, since 2014. Where the ground is mostly roofs, roads and bare earth it reads hotter; where there are trees, grass, gardens or water it reads cooler.

Warmest

Ward 16 (Matiko Xikaya - A)+3.1 °C
Ward 13 (Benfarm AC, Humulani)+2.8 °C
Ward 15+2.3 °C
Ward 7 (Namakgale - C)+1.6 °C
Ward 17 (Letaba Rest Camp, Mopani Rest Camp)+1.3 °C

Coolest

Every ward

Ward 16 (Matiko Xikaya - A)+3.1 °C
Ward 13 (Benfarm AC, Humulani)+2.8 °C
Ward 15+2.3 °C
Ward 7 (Namakgale - C)+1.6 °C
Ward 17 (Letaba Rest Camp, Mopani Rest Camp)+1.3 °C
Ward 5 (Namakgale - B)+1.2 °C
Ward 9 (Ba Shai - Ditlou, Ga-Makhushane)+1.0 °C
Ward 19 (Namakgale - A)+1.0 °C
Ward 4 (Namakgale)+0.9 °C
Ward 6 (Namakgale - E)+0.7 °C
Ward 14 (Lulekani, Lulekani - A)+0.7 °C
Ward 1 (Makushane Location, Namakgale - D)+0.4 °C
Ward 2+0.4 °C
Ward 10−0.9 °C
Ward 11 (Phalaborwa)−0.9 °C
Ward 3 (Ben - A, Ben - B)−1.3 °C
Ward 8 (Mashisimali Location)−1.6 °C
Ward 12 (Phalaborwa)−2.1 °C
Ward 18 (Gravelotte, Leydsdorp)−2.6 °C

Places in each ward: © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Month by month

Month	Land surface temperature	Clear looks
October 2026	44.0 °C	4.7
September 2026	37.0 °C	2.7
August 2026	28.7 °C	6.4
July 2026	24.9 °C	4.3
June 2026	25.7 °C	3.5
May 2026	27.3 °C	3.8
April 2026	30.9 °C	0.8
March 2026	28.7 °C	0.8
February 2026	38.5 °C	1.9
January 2026	Seen too little	0.2
December 2025	42.2 °C	2.8
November 2025	43.8 °C	2.6
October 2025	46.0 °C	3.9
September 2025	38.4 °C	3.6
August 2025	31.4 °C	4.9
July 2025	27.0 °C	5.2
June 2025	28.0 °C	5.1
May 2025	29.0 °C	3.8
April 2025	34.1 °C	4.9
March 2025	33.4 °C	0.3
February 2025	41.0 °C	1.4
January 2025	37.3 °C	2.5
December 2024	48.6 °C	1.6
November 2024	46.8 °C	2.1

“Clear looks” is how many times the average 240 m patch of the place was seen through clear sky that month. Under one, part of the place was not seen at all, so the figure leans on the part that was.

Every municipality, ranked · Everything we hold for Ba-Phalaborwa

Source

Measured from space by the American Landsat satellites: the ground, not the air.

How we worked this out

Landsat 5 to 2011, Landsat 7 to bridge the gaps, Landsat 8 and 9 from 2013: different satellites pass at slightly different times, so compare summers within the same years first.

What we changed: we kept only the clear land cells (no cloud, cloud shadow, snow or water, with a margin round each cloud), read them at 480 m, and averaged them over each 2026 ward each month; larger places are the sums of their wards.

Landsat imagery courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey (Landsat Collection 2 surface temperature, through Digital Earth Africa’s copy).

Dataset: land surface temperature by ward, release of 13 November 2026.