Free tools · Measured from space

Heat in Ward 6, Richtersveld

Summer 2024/25: the ground in Ward 6, Richtersveld reached about 40 °C on clear mornings. That is the ground (roofs, roads, soil), not the air. The 5th hottest of 9 summers since 2014. In summer the ground here reads −5.5 °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 2024/25

39.7 °CThe ground, not the airDecember to February, clear mornings
2014/15Hottest summer since 201441.8 °C; the coolest was 2016/17, 37.7 °C
−5.5 °CAgainst its municipalityThe ward’s summers against the municipality’s average, 9 summers since 2014

Every summer since 2003

Each summer (December to February, named by the year it ends) on clear mornings. Bars start at 34 °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, 2003 to 2025: every figure
When or what	Figure
Summer 2002 to 03	38.4 °C
Summer 2011 to 12	36.7 °C
Summer 2012 to 13	38.5 °C
Summer 2014 to 15	41.8 °C
Summer 2016 to 17	37.7 °C
Summer 2017 to 18	39.0 °C
Summer 2018 to 19	38.0 °C
Summer 2020 to 21	37.9 °C
Summer 2021 to 22	41.0 °C
Summer 2022 to 23	40.0 °C
Summer 2023 to 24	40.3 °C
Summer 2024 to 25	39.7 °C

The shape of a year

Each month’s average since 2014, clear mornings. Bars start at 20 °C.

Show the numbers

Land surface temperature by calendar month, since 2014: every figure
When or what	Figure
January	39.7 °C
February	36.3 °C
March	40.3 °C
April	31.7 °C
May	25.7 °C
June	22.1 °C
July	23.6 °C
August	24.0 °C
September	29.3 °C
October	38.5 °C
November	40.2 °C
December	39.9 °C

Month by month

Month	Land surface temperature	Clear looks
October 2026	39.6 °C	0.5
September 2026	Seen too little	0.0
August 2026	25.1 °C	0.8
July 2026	26.2 °C	0.4
June 2026	21.6 °C	0.5
May 2026	Seen too little	0.0
April 2026	Seen too little	0.0
March 2026	37.3 °C	0.6
February 2026	Seen too little	0.2
January 2026	Seen too little	0.1
December 2025	40.8 °C	0.5
November 2025	39.3 °C	0.3
October 2025	37.2 °C	0.5
September 2025	25.3 °C	0.3
August 2025	Seen too little	0.0
July 2025	20.3 °C	0.6
June 2025	Seen too little	0.0
May 2025	29.6 °C	0.6
April 2025	31.7 °C	0.3
March 2025	39.6 °C	0.3
February 2025	Seen too little	0.1
January 2025	41.2 °C	1.3
December 2024	38.1 °C	0.4
November 2024	37.6 °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.

Richtersveld 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.