Free tools · Measured from space

Heat in Ward 26, Dr JS Moroka

Summer 2023/24: the ground in Ward 26, Dr JS Moroka reached about 41 °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 2023/24

41.4 °CThe ground, not the airDecember to February, clear mornings
2015/16Hottest summer since 201450.0 °C; the coolest was 2022/23, 36.0 °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 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, 2002 to 2024: every figure
When or what	Figure
Summer 2001 to 02	36.6 °C
Summer 2015 to 16	50.0 °C
Summer 2022 to 23	36.0 °C
Summer 2023 to 24	41.4 °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	40.9 °C
February	35.8 °C
March	35.7 °C
April	29.3 °C
May	25.9 °C
June	22.1 °C
July	23.3 °C
August	30.5 °C
September	38.8 °C
October	45.7 °C
November	42.6 °C
December	44.0 °C

Month by month

Month	Land surface temperature	Clear looks
October 2026	47.7 °C	0.4
September 2026	36.7 °C	0.3
August 2026	31.3 °C	0.6
July 2026	23.9 °C	0.5
June 2026	22.5 °C	0.6
May 2026	22.8 °C	0.6
April 2026	Seen too little	0.1
March 2026	Seen too little	0.0
February 2026	35.6 °C	0.3
January 2026	Seen too little	0.2
December 2025	Seen too little	0.2
November 2025	Seen too little	0.2
October 2025	42.1 °C	0.4
September 2025	39.1 °C	0.6
August 2025	27.8 °C	0.6
July 2025	22.6 °C	0.8
June 2025	20.9 °C	0.4
May 2025	22.3 °C	0.8
April 2025	26.0 °C	0.3
March 2025	Seen too little	0.1
February 2025	Seen too little	0.0
January 2025	34.7 °C	0.5
December 2024	Seen too little	0.2
November 2024	50.6 °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.

Dr JS Moroka 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.