Free tools · Measured from space

Heat in Ward 10, Rustenburg

Summer 2024/25: the ground in Ward 10, Rustenburg reached about 46 °C on clear mornings. That is the ground (roofs, roads, soil), not the air. Only the summer of 2017/18 was hotter since 2014. In summer the ground here reads +4.4 °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

46.3 °CThe ground, not the airDecember to February, clear mornings
2017/18Hottest summer since 201447.3 °C; the coolest was 2021/22, 39.4 °C
+4.4 °CAgainst its municipalityThe ward’s summers against the municipality’s average, 7 summers since 2014

Every summer since 1987

Each summer (December to February, named by the year it ends) on clear mornings. Bars start at 35 °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 2025: every figure
When or what	Figure
Summer 1986 to 87	39.9 °C
Summer 1990 to 91	37.1 °C
Summer 1992 to 93	37.8 °C
Summer 1997 to 98	37.1 °C
Summer 2000 to 01	43.3 °C
Summer 2002 to 03	42.2 °C
Summer 2006 to 07	41.8 °C
Summer 2012 to 13	38.2 °C
Summer 2015 to 16	45.8 °C
Summer 2017 to 18	47.3 °C
Summer 2018 to 19	44.5 °C
Summer 2021 to 22	39.4 °C
Summer 2022 to 23	41.8 °C
Summer 2023 to 24	41.5 °C
Summer 2024 to 25	46.3 °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	42.4 °C
February	41.6 °C
March	37.5 °C
April	31.5 °C
May	26.9 °C
June	22.1 °C
July	23.4 °C
August	27.9 °C
September	35.2 °C
October	41.8 °C
November	42.4 °C
December	45.2 °C

Month by month

Month	Land surface temperature	Clear looks
October 2026	44.1 °C	4.1
September 2026	35.2 °C	2.0
August 2026	26.6 °C	3.2
July 2026	22.7 °C	2.7
June 2026	23.5 °C	1.5
May 2026	25.8 °C	2.4
April 2026	36.8 °C	1.0
March 2026	39.7 °C	1.0
February 2026	38.0 °C	1.0
January 2026	Seen too little	0.0
December 2025	Seen too little	0.2
November 2025	41.3 °C	2.8
October 2025	35.2 °C	0.9
September 2025	33.9 °C	2.8
August 2025	27.4 °C	3.7
July 2025	23.3 °C	2.1
June 2025	21.1 °C	3.2
May 2025	23.4 °C	2.4
April 2025	27.8 °C	0.7
March 2025	38.3 °C	1.8
February 2025	42.6 °C	1.1
January 2025	44.1 °C	0.8
December 2024	52.1 °C	1.9
November 2024	46.4 °C	2.6

“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.

Rustenburg 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.