Free tools · Measured from space

Heat in Ward 25, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela

Summer 2025/26: the ground in Ward 25, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela reached about 35 °C on clear mornings. That is the ground (roofs, roads, soil), not the air. The 6th hottest of 7 summers since 2014. In summer the ground here reads +1.5 °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

35.1 °CThe ground, not the airDecember to February, clear mornings
2022/23Hottest summer since 201439.0 °C; the coolest was 2017/18, 34.8 °C
+1.5 °CAgainst its municipalityThe ward’s summers against the municipality’s average, 6 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	35.2 °C
Summer 1990 to 91	31.1 °C
Summer 1996 to 97	32.5 °C
Summer 1999 to 00	29.7 °C
Summer 2000 to 01	35.1 °C
Summer 2001 to 02	31.6 °C
Summer 2002 to 03	37.5 °C
Summer 2007 to 08	36.0 °C
Summer 2011 to 12	36.0 °C
Summer 2012 to 13	37.1 °C
Summer 2016 to 17	35.5 °C
Summer 2017 to 18	34.8 °C
Summer 2019 to 20	36.4 °C
Summer 2021 to 22	36.3 °C
Summer 2022 to 23	39.0 °C
Summer 2023 to 24	35.4 °C
Summer 2025 to 26	35.1 °C

The shape of a year

Each month’s average since 2014, clear mornings. Bars start at 18 °C.

Show the numbers

Land surface temperature by calendar month, since 2014: every figure
When or what	Figure
January	36.9 °C
February	35.8 °C
March	33.2 °C
April	26.8 °C
May	24.1 °C
June	20.6 °C
July	21.0 °C
August	23.8 °C
September	27.6 °C
October	32.6 °C
November	33.2 °C
December	35.6 °C

Month by month

Month	Land surface temperature	Clear looks
October 2026	30.4 °C	1.2
September 2026	24.8 °C	1.6
August 2026	23.9 °C	2.0
July 2026	21.6 °C	3.2
June 2026	22.4 °C	2.2
May 2026	27.7 °C	1.6
April 2026	32.1 °C	3.5
March 2026	33.9 °C	1.1
February 2026	36.4 °C	2.6
January 2026	35.7 °C	1.0
December 2025	33.1 °C	1.2
November 2025	Seen too little	0.2
October 2025	37.2 °C	1.8
September 2025	31.1 °C	1.2
August 2025	23.1 °C	2.2
July 2025	22.2 °C	2.2
June 2025	21.0 °C	3.3
May 2025	23.6 °C	3.4
April 2025	26.2 °C	1.0
March 2025	30.6 °C	4.0
February 2025	Seen too little	0.2
January 2025	Seen too little	0.0
December 2024	34.6 °C	1.1
November 2024	29.8 °C	0.8

“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.

Winnie Madikizela-Mandela 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.