Free tools · Measured from space

Heat in Mkhambathini

Summer 2025/26: the ground in Mkhambathini reached about 35 °C on clear mornings. That is the ground (roofs, roads, soil), not the air. The 4th hottest of 9 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

34.9 °CThe ground, not the airDecember to February, clear mornings
2016/17Hottest summer since 201437.5 °C; the coolest was 2024/25, 31.1 °C

Every summer since 1991

Each summer (December to February, named by the year it ends) on clear mornings. Bars start at 26 °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, 1991 to 2026: every figure
When or what	Figure
Summer 1990 to 91	29.1 °C
Summer 1995 to 96	28.2 °C
Summer 1996 to 97	30.9 °C
Summer 1997 to 98	33.9 °C
Summer 1998 to 99	32.4 °C
Summer 2000 to 01	31.4 °C
Summer 2001 to 02	28.7 °C
Summer 2002 to 03	32.0 °C
Summer 2006 to 07	35.8 °C
Summer 2012 to 13	31.9 °C
Summer 2016 to 17	37.5 °C
Summer 2017 to 18	32.4 °C
Summer 2019 to 20	36.2 °C
Summer 2020 to 21	34.9 °C
Summer 2021 to 22	32.1 °C
Summer 2022 to 23	34.2 °C
Summer 2023 to 24	33.4 °C
Summer 2024 to 25	31.1 °C
Summer 2025 to 26	34.9 °C

The shape of a year

Each month’s average since 2014, clear mornings. Bars start at 16 °C.

Show the numbers

Land surface temperature by calendar month, since 2014: every figure
When or what	Figure
January	34.4 °C
February	32.2 °C
March	31.2 °C
April	24.6 °C
May	21.6 °C
June	18.4 °C
July	19.1 °C
August	22.3 °C
September	28.3 °C
October	32.1 °C
November	33.1 °C
December	36.1 °C

Warmest and coolest wards

Each ward’s summers against Mkhambathini’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

Coolest

Ward 7−1.2 °C
Ward 8 (Camperdown, Nqutu Park)−0.6 °C
Ward 1−0.2 °C
Ward 30.0 °C
Ward 20.0 °C

Every ward

Places in each ward: © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Month by month

Month	Land surface temperature	Clear looks
October 2026	29.5 °C	1.7
September 2026	26.8 °C	2.4
August 2026	22.1 °C	1.6
July 2026	17.9 °C	2.6
June 2026	19.5 °C	1.7
May 2026	21.7 °C	3.2
April 2026	27.3 °C	2.7
March 2026	Seen too little	0.2
February 2026	32.3 °C	2.6
January 2026	37.4 °C	1.7
December 2025	Seen too little	0.0
November 2025	29.6 °C	0.4
October 2025	33.3 °C	2.0
September 2025	29.0 °C	0.9
August 2025	20.7 °C	0.9
July 2025	17.9 °C	2.3
June 2025	17.3 °C	2.5
May 2025	19.9 °C	2.0
April 2025	20.5 °C	0.3
March 2025	27.6 °C	3.0
February 2025	28.4 °C	0.3
January 2025	31.7 °C	0.4
December 2024	33.3 °C	1.4
November 2024	27.9 °C	1.5

“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 Mkhambathini

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.