Free tools · Measured from space

Heat in Ward 15, Nkomazi

Summer 2023/24: the ground in Ward 15, Nkomazi reached about 37 °C on clear mornings. That is the ground (roofs, roads, soil), not the air.

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

37.4 °CThe ground, not the airDecember to February, clear mornings
2023/24Hottest summer since 201437.4 °C; the coolest was 2023/24, 37.4 °C

Every summer since 1991

Each summer (December to February, named by the year it ends) on clear mornings. Bars start at 29 °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 2024: every figure
When or what	Figure
Summer 1990 to 91	31.5 °C
Summer 2000 to 01	36.2 °C
Summer 2006 to 07	37.1 °C
Summer 2023 to 24	37.4 °C

The shape of a year

Each month’s average since 2014, clear mornings. Bars start at 23 °C.

Show the numbers

Land surface temperature by calendar month, since 2014: every figure
When or what	Figure
January	35.9 °C
February	38.3 °C
March	36.5 °C
April	31.1 °C
May	27.3 °C
June	25.7 °C
July	25.8 °C
August	29.4 °C
September	36.9 °C
October	41.7 °C
November	37.7 °C
December	38.1 °C

Month by month

Month	Land surface temperature	Clear looks
October 2026	35.7 °C	0.7
September 2026	36.9 °C	0.6
August 2026	28.1 °C	1.1
July 2026	24.3 °C	0.6
June 2026	23.0 °C	0.5
May 2026	25.9 °C	0.5
April 2026	27.1 °C	0.3
March 2026	Seen too little	0.0
February 2026	35.9 °C	0.3
January 2026	Seen too little	0.2
December 2025	Seen too little	0.0
November 2025	Seen too little	0.0
October 2025	40.1 °C	0.3
September 2025	36.0 °C	0.9
August 2025	26.8 °C	0.4
July 2025	25.7 °C	0.6
June 2025	25.8 °C	1.1
May 2025	26.6 °C	0.5
April 2025	32.5 °C	0.9
March 2025	35.3 °C	0.3
February 2025	Seen too little	0.0
January 2025	34.2 °C	0.4
December 2024	Seen too little	0.1
November 2024	34.8 °C	0.6

“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.

Nkomazi 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.