Free tools · Measured from space

Heat in Ward 2, Big Five Hlabisa

Summer 2019/20: the ground in Ward 2, Big Five Hlabisa reached about 37 °C on clear mornings. That is the ground (roofs, roads, soil), not the air. In summer the ground here reads −2.3 °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 2019/20

36.9 °CThe ground, not the airDecember to February, clear mornings
2015/16Hottest summer since 201441.0 °C; the coolest was 2019/20, 36.9 °C
−2.3 °CAgainst its municipalityThe ward’s summers against the municipality’s average, 3 summers since 2014

Every summer since 2002

Each summer (December to February, named by the year it ends) on clear mornings. Bars start at 30 °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, 2002 to 2020: every figure
When or what	Figure
Summer 2001 to 02	32.5 °C
Summer 2015 to 16	41.0 °C
Summer 2016 to 17	37.4 °C
Summer 2019 to 20	36.9 °C

The shape of a year

Each month’s average since 2014, clear mornings. Bars start at 19 °C.

Show the numbers

Land surface temperature by calendar month, since 2014: every figure
When or what	Figure
January	36.2 °C
February	37.8 °C
March	30.0 °C
April	27.0 °C
May	24.9 °C
June	21.8 °C
July	22.5 °C
August	25.5 °C
September	30.5 °C
October	34.0 °C
November	37.8 °C
December	38.6 °C

Month by month

Month	Land surface temperature	Clear looks
October 2026	34.7 °C	0.3
September 2026	27.3 °C	0.4
August 2026	25.2 °C	0.5
July 2026	21.9 °C	1.0
June 2026	22.1 °C	0.5
May 2026	24.7 °C	1.0
April 2026	27.9 °C	0.5
March 2026	32.4 °C	0.4
February 2026	35.5 °C	0.4
January 2026	Seen too little	0.1
December 2025	Seen too little	0.0
November 2025	33.2 °C	0.3
October 2025	30.8 °C	0.3
September 2025	28.1 °C	0.3
August 2025	24.8 °C	1.1
July 2025	Seen too little	0.2
June 2025	20.8 °C	1.1
May 2025	24.0 °C	1.1
April 2025	Seen too little	0.0
March 2025	Seen too little	0.1
February 2025	Seen too little	0.0
January 2025	Seen too little	0.1
December 2024	Seen too little	0.0
November 2024	Seen too little	0.1

“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.

Big Five Hlabisa 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.