Free tools · Measured from space

Heat in Ward 8, Nkandla

Summer 2025/26: the ground in Ward 8, Nkandla reached about 30 °C on clear mornings. That is the ground (roofs, roads, soil), not the air. The 9th hottest of 11 summers since 2014. In summer the ground here reads −3.0 °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

29.9 °CThe ground, not the airDecember to February, clear mornings
2014/15Hottest summer since 201434.4 °C; the coolest was 2024/25, 26.8 °C
−3.0 °CAgainst its municipalityThe ward’s summers against the municipality’s average, 11 summers since 2014

Every summer since 1991

Each summer (December to February, named by the year it ends) on clear mornings. Bars start at 24 °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, 1991 to 2026: every figure
When or what	Figure
Summer 1990 to 91	26.8 °C
Summer 1996 to 97	29.0 °C
Summer 1997 to 98	32.1 °C
Summer 1998 to 99	28.2 °C
Summer 1999 to 00	32.0 °C
Summer 2000 to 01	27.9 °C
Summer 2001 to 02	28.5 °C
Summer 2002 to 03	30.3 °C
Summer 2006 to 07	32.7 °C
Summer 2012 to 13	29.6 °C
Summer 2014 to 15	34.4 °C
Summer 2015 to 16	31.2 °C
Summer 2016 to 17	33.1 °C
Summer 2017 to 18	32.9 °C
Summer 2019 to 20	32.7 °C
Summer 2020 to 21	32.5 °C
Summer 2021 to 22	28.5 °C
Summer 2022 to 23	31.4 °C
Summer 2023 to 24	31.0 °C
Summer 2024 to 25	26.8 °C
Summer 2025 to 26	29.9 °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	31.3 °C
February	30.5 °C
March	27.3 °C
April	22.6 °C
May	20.0 °C
June	17.3 °C
July	17.5 °C
August	20.5 °C
September	27.8 °C
October	29.0 °C
November	31.6 °C
December	31.9 °C

Month by month

Month	Land surface temperature	Clear looks
October 2026	27.8 °C	1.5
September 2026	25.2 °C	1.9
August 2026	18.8 °C	2.1
July 2026	16.6 °C	2.9
June 2026	18.5 °C	2.4
May 2026	19.7 °C	2.8
April 2026	19.2 °C	0.9
March 2026	25.3 °C	0.3
February 2026	29.8 °C	2.7
January 2026	31.1 °C	1.7
December 2025	28.9 °C	0.9
November 2025	Seen too little	0.2
October 2025	27.9 °C	1.6
September 2025	30.5 °C	1.0
August 2025	19.9 °C	1.1
July 2025	16.6 °C	1.3
June 2025	17.0 °C	2.3
May 2025	19.3 °C	2.7
April 2025	23.8 °C	1.0
March 2025	23.9 °C	2.6
February 2025	25.7 °C	1.0
January 2025	28.8 °C	0.9
December 2024	26.1 °C	1.5
November 2024	25.2 °C	0.5

“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.

Nkandla 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.