Free tools · Measured from space

Heat in Ward 6, Thembelihle

Summer 2025/26: the ground in Ward 6, Thembelihle reached about 42 °C on clear mornings. That is the ground (roofs, roads, soil), not the air. The 11th hottest of 13 summers since 2014. In summer the ground here reads about the same as 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

42.2 °CThe ground, not the airDecember to February, clear mornings
2015/16Hottest summer since 201450.1 °C; the coolest was 2021/22, 39.1 °C
0.0 °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 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, 1987 to 2026: every figure
When or what	Figure
Summer 1986 to 87	44.3 °C
Summer 1988 to 89	36.2 °C
Summer 1990 to 91	43.0 °C
Summer 1991 to 92	43.6 °C
Summer 1992 to 93	43.6 °C
Summer 1993 to 94	40.7 °C
Summer 1994 to 95	44.3 °C
Summer 1995 to 96	40.4 °C
Summer 1996 to 97	40.8 °C
Summer 1997 to 98	40.2 °C
Summer 1998 to 99	44.2 °C
Summer 2000 to 01	42.6 °C
Summer 2001 to 02	43.2 °C
Summer 2002 to 03	43.1 °C
Summer 2003 to 04	46.1 °C
Summer 2011 to 12	43.6 °C
Summer 2012 to 13	41.0 °C
Summer 2013 to 14	44.4 °C
Summer 2014 to 15	46.4 °C
Summer 2015 to 16	50.1 °C
Summer 2016 to 17	44.9 °C
Summer 2017 to 18	46.4 °C
Summer 2018 to 19	45.1 °C
Summer 2019 to 20	44.5 °C
Summer 2020 to 21	41.3 °C
Summer 2021 to 22	39.1 °C
Summer 2022 to 23	42.5 °C
Summer 2023 to 24	45.5 °C
Summer 2024 to 25	49.0 °C
Summer 2025 to 26	42.2 °C

The shape of a year

Each month’s average since 2014, clear mornings. Bars start at 15 °C.

Show the numbers

Land surface temperature by calendar month, since 2014: every figure
When or what	Figure
January	46.5 °C
February	40.5 °C
March	36.9 °C
April	28.5 °C
May	22.5 °C
June	17.4 °C
July	17.9 °C
August	23.1 °C
September	32.8 °C
October	40.8 °C
November	47.9 °C
December	47.3 °C

Month by month

Month	Land surface temperature	Clear looks
October 2026	39.1 °C	6.0
September 2026	32.2 °C	3.1
August 2026	23.6 °C	5.1
July 2026	16.6 °C	4.7
June 2026	15.3 °C	2.6
May 2026	19.5 °C	5.9
April 2026	22.6 °C	4.3
March 2026	36.5 °C	6.1
February 2026	37.0 °C	2.7
January 2026	47.3 °C	6.9
December 2025	42.3 °C	7.0
November 2025	46.2 °C	6.2
October 2025	38.2 °C	5.4
September 2025	30.9 °C	7.1
August 2025	22.6 °C	5.8
July 2025	18.1 °C	5.7
June 2025	15.5 °C	8.0
May 2025	19.9 °C	5.4
April 2025	25.2 °C	6.1
March 2025	33.0 °C	3.1
February 2025	43.3 °C	3.9
January 2025	49.3 °C	6.5
December 2024	54.4 °C	6.3
November 2024	51.6 °C	5.2

“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.

Thembelihle 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.