Free tools · Measured from space

Heat in Ward 9, Stellenbosch

Summer 2025/26: the ground in Ward 9, Stellenbosch reached about 41 °C on clear mornings. That is the ground (roofs, roads, soil), not the air. The third hottest summer since 2014. In summer the ground here reads +3.9 °C against its municipality’s average (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

40.7 °CThe ground, not the airDecember to February, clear mornings
2023/24Hottest summer since 201443.0 °C; the coolest was 2019/20, 36.5 °C
+3.9 °CAgainst its municipalityThe ward’s summers against the municipality’s average, 13 summers since 2014

Every summer since 1987

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, 1987 to 2026: every figure
When or what	Figure
Summer 1986 to 87	37.6 °C
Summer 1988 to 89	37.4 °C
Summer 1990 to 91	34.6 °C
Summer 1991 to 92	35.6 °C
Summer 1992 to 93	32.7 °C
Summer 1993 to 94	36.0 °C
Summer 1994 to 95	35.2 °C
Summer 1996 to 97	34.1 °C
Summer 1998 to 99	38.7 °C
Summer 1999 to 00	36.8 °C
Summer 2006 to 07	28.2 °C
Summer 2011 to 12	35.3 °C
Summer 2012 to 13	38.4 °C
Summer 2013 to 14	39.7 °C
Summer 2014 to 15	39.4 °C
Summer 2015 to 16	41.2 °C
Summer 2016 to 17	38.7 °C
Summer 2017 to 18	39.6 °C
Summer 2018 to 19	39.6 °C
Summer 2019 to 20	36.5 °C
Summer 2020 to 21	38.6 °C
Summer 2021 to 22	39.8 °C
Summer 2022 to 23	37.5 °C
Summer 2023 to 24	43.0 °C
Summer 2024 to 25	39.9 °C
Summer 2025 to 26	40.7 °C

The shape of a year

Each month’s average since 2014, clear mornings. Bars start at 13 °C.

Show the numbers

Land surface temperature by calendar month, since 2014: every figure
When or what	Figure
January	39.9 °C
February	38.0 °C
March	32.6 °C
April	27.3 °C
May	20.7 °C
June	15.8 °C
July	16.3 °C
August	18.4 °C
September	24.0 °C
October	31.9 °C
November	35.4 °C
December	40.7 °C

Month by month

Month	Land surface temperature	Clear looks
October 2026	28.1 °C	3.0
September 2026	22.4 °C	2.0
August 2026	21.0 °C	0.8
July 2026	17.6 °C	1.8
June 2026	15.4 °C	2.7
May 2026	22.3 °C	0.9
April 2026	33.2 °C	1.4
March 2026	33.5 °C	1.7
February 2026	39.4 °C	1.5
January 2026	41.1 °C	4.0
December 2025	41.5 °C	4.9
November 2025	42.7 °C	2.3
October 2025	30.1 °C	2.1
September 2025	23.9 °C	2.7
August 2025	17.1 °C	0.8
July 2025	15.5 °C	2.3
June 2025	15.2 °C	0.7
May 2025	20.0 °C	2.6
April 2025	29.2 °C	4.0
March 2025	36.0 °C	2.5
February 2025	38.5 °C	5.0
January 2025	40.5 °C	3.6
December 2024	40.8 °C	1.2
November 2024	36.7 °C	3.7

“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.

Stellenbosch and its wards · Every municipality, ranked

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.