Free tools · Measured from space

Heat in Ward 5, Phumelela

Summer 2025/26: the ground in Ward 5, Phumelela reached about 32 °C on clear mornings. That is the ground (roofs, roads, soil), not the air. The 10th hottest of 13 summers since 2014. In summer the ground here reads −0.6 °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

31.8 °CThe ground, not the airDecember to February, clear mornings
2015/16Hottest summer since 201438.9 °C; the coolest was 2021/22, 29.5 °C
−0.6 °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	31.7 °C
Summer 1994 to 95	34.1 °C
Summer 1996 to 97	30.9 °C
Summer 1997 to 98	31.2 °C
Summer 1998 to 99	31.2 °C
Summer 2000 to 01	31.6 °C
Summer 2001 to 02	30.3 °C
Summer 2002 to 03	34.1 °C
Summer 2006 to 07	35.7 °C
Summer 2011 to 12	33.4 °C
Summer 2012 to 13	32.4 °C
Summer 2013 to 14	33.2 °C
Summer 2014 to 15	33.4 °C
Summer 2015 to 16	38.9 °C
Summer 2016 to 17	32.9 °C
Summer 2017 to 18	33.3 °C
Summer 2018 to 19	36.3 °C
Summer 2019 to 20	33.4 °C
Summer 2020 to 21	29.7 °C
Summer 2021 to 22	29.5 °C
Summer 2022 to 23	31.3 °C
Summer 2023 to 24	33.2 °C
Summer 2024 to 25	32.8 °C
Summer 2025 to 26	31.8 °C

The shape of a year

Each month’s average since 2014, clear mornings. Bars start at 14 °C.

Show the numbers

Land surface temperature by calendar month, since 2014: every figure
When or what	Figure
January	33.9 °C
February	31.4 °C
March	27.9 °C
April	24.3 °C
May	20.8 °C
June	16.6 °C
July	16.9 °C
August	23.6 °C
September	30.5 °C
October	36.6 °C
November	34.0 °C
December	34.0 °C

Month by month

Month	Land surface temperature	Clear looks
October 2026	35.7 °C	5.6
September 2026	24.8 °C	1.2
August 2026	21.9 °C	4.3
July 2026	17.2 °C	3.5
June 2026	15.3 °C	2.8
May 2026	18.9 °C	4.9
April 2026	Seen too little	0.2
March 2026	26.9 °C	2.5
February 2026	31.6 °C	3.2
January 2026	32.5 °C	2.4
December 2025	31.4 °C	2.6
November 2025	23.4 °C	0.8
October 2025	31.1 °C	2.9
September 2025	28.0 °C	3.0
August 2025	20.3 °C	5.2
July 2025	16.3 °C	4.6
June 2025	15.4 °C	3.0
May 2025	18.7 °C	3.5
April 2025	22.3 °C	3.3
March 2025	24.8 °C	0.3
February 2025	29.7 °C	0.9
January 2025	31.7 °C	2.8
December 2024	37.1 °C	2.4
November 2024	36.4 °C	3.4

“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.

Phumelela 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.