Free tools · Measured from space

Heat in Vhembe

Summer 2025/26: the ground in Vhembe reached about 36 °C on clear mornings. That is the ground (roofs, roads, soil), not the air. The coolest summer 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

36.3 °CThe ground, not the airDecember to February, clear mornings
2017/18Hottest summer since 201446.3 °C; the coolest was 2025/26, 36.3 °C

Every summer since 1987

Each summer (December to February, named by the year it ends) on clear mornings. Bars start at 33 °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	38.0 °C
Summer 1990 to 91	36.1 °C
Summer 1992 to 93	35.5 °C
Summer 1994 to 95	39.0 °C
Summer 1997 to 98	40.9 °C
Summer 2001 to 02	39.6 °C
Summer 2002 to 03	41.8 °C
Summer 2006 to 07	41.9 °C
Summer 2012 to 13	39.9 °C
Summer 2014 to 15	42.3 °C
Summer 2015 to 16	44.8 °C
Summer 2017 to 18	46.3 °C
Summer 2018 to 19	39.9 °C
Summer 2019 to 20	42.6 °C
Summer 2020 to 21	37.8 °C
Summer 2021 to 22	39.2 °C
Summer 2022 to 23	39.7 °C
Summer 2023 to 24	39.1 °C
Summer 2024 to 25	39.8 °C
Summer 2025 to 26	36.3 °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	39.0 °C
February	38.0 °C
March	36.3 °C
April	32.9 °C
May	29.1 °C
June	26.1 °C
July	26.6 °C
August	31.7 °C
September	38.3 °C
October	44.7 °C
November	45.9 °C
December	44.5 °C

Month by month

Month	Land surface temperature	Clear looks
October 2026	41.8 °C	1.9
September 2026	34.4 °C	1.0
August 2026	29.2 °C	3.0
July 2026	25.2 °C	2.1
June 2026	25.2 °C	1.7
May 2026	27.8 °C	2.3
April 2026	Seen too little	0.2
March 2026	Seen too little	0.2
February 2026	37.6 °C	1.1
January 2026	28.8 °C	0.5
December 2025	42.4 °C	1.5
November 2025	39.9 °C	1.5
October 2025	42.4 °C	2.2
September 2025	38.5 °C	2.4
August 2025	29.6 °C	2.5
July 2025	26.1 °C	3.1
June 2025	26.3 °C	1.9
May 2025	27.7 °C	2.0
April 2025	32.3 °C	1.9
March 2025	35.4 °C	0.4
February 2025	36.3 °C	0.7
January 2025	36.2 °C	0.9
December 2024	47.0 °C	1.6
November 2024	47.9 °C	1.6

“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 Vhembe

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.