Free tools · Measured from space

Heat in Ward 33, City of Cape Town

Summer 2025/26: the ground in Ward 33, City of Cape Town reached about 39 °C on clear mornings. That is the ground (roofs, roads, soil), not the air. The 5th hottest of 13 summers since 2014. In summer the ground here reads −0.9 °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

39.4 °CThe ground, not the airDecember to February, clear mornings
2017/18Hottest summer since 201440.4 °C; the coolest was 2019/20, 32.4 °C
−0.9 °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 27 °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	37.0 °C
Summer 1988 to 89	34.4 °C
Summer 1990 to 91	33.4 °C
Summer 1991 to 92	32.9 °C
Summer 1992 to 93	31.9 °C
Summer 1993 to 94	31.8 °C
Summer 1994 to 95	32.3 °C
Summer 1996 to 97	34.4 °C
Summer 1997 to 98	35.1 °C
Summer 1998 to 99	34.8 °C
Summer 2001 to 02	42.2 °C
Summer 2006 to 07	29.4 °C
Summer 2011 to 12	36.2 °C
Summer 2012 to 13	39.2 °C
Summer 2013 to 14	38.4 °C
Summer 2014 to 15	39.1 °C
Summer 2015 to 16	38.8 °C
Summer 2016 to 17	40.1 °C
Summer 2017 to 18	40.4 °C
Summer 2018 to 19	39.8 °C
Summer 2019 to 20	32.4 °C
Summer 2020 to 21	37.0 °C
Summer 2021 to 22	36.6 °C
Summer 2022 to 23	37.0 °C
Summer 2023 to 24	40.2 °C
Summer 2024 to 25	38.1 °C
Summer 2025 to 26	39.4 °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	39.1 °C
February	37.1 °C
March	32.8 °C
April	26.1 °C
May	20.7 °C
June	15.4 °C
July	15.8 °C
August	18.9 °C
September	24.7 °C
October	32.8 °C
November	35.0 °C
December	37.7 °C

Month by month

Month	Land surface temperature	Clear looks
October 2026	31.8 °C	4.3
September 2026	24.4 °C	5.1
August 2026	20.0 °C	0.7
July 2026	15.6 °C	0.7
June 2026	16.3 °C	2.9
May 2026	21.5 °C	2.2
April 2026	28.3 °C	0.5
March 2026	36.2 °C	1.8
February 2026	40.4 °C	2.6
January 2026	37.8 °C	4.6
December 2025	40.1 °C	6.7
November 2025	40.5 °C	3.6
October 2025	29.9 °C	2.3
September 2025	23.3 °C	1.8
August 2025	20.6 °C	3.5
July 2025	15.9 °C	3.8
June 2025	16.8 °C	1.5
May 2025	21.7 °C	1.6
April 2025	27.0 °C	4.1
March 2025	35.5 °C	1.9
February 2025	35.4 °C	4.7
January 2025	42.0 °C	5.2
December 2024	36.9 °C	3.8
November 2024	35.5 °C	5.0

“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.

City of Cape Town 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.