Free tools · Measured from space

Heat in Ward 23, Nkomazi

Summer 2024/25: the ground in Ward 23, Nkomazi reached about 42 °C on clear mornings. That is the ground (roofs, roads, soil), not the air. In summer the ground here reads +6.6 °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

42.3 °CThe ground, not the airDecember to February, clear mornings
2019/20Hottest summer since 201446.1 °C; the coolest was 2021/22, 38.8 °C
+6.6 °CAgainst its municipalityThe ward’s summers against the municipality’s average, 3 summers since 2014

Every summer since 1991

Each summer (December to February, named by the year it ends) on clear mornings. Bars start at 31 °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 2025: every figure
When or what	Figure
Summer 1990 to 91	33.5 °C
Summer 1999 to 00	39.4 °C
Summer 2000 to 01	39.1 °C
Summer 2001 to 02	35.7 °C
Summer 2006 to 07	38.6 °C
Summer 2019 to 20	46.1 °C
Summer 2021 to 22	38.8 °C
Summer 2023 to 24	42.7 °C
Summer 2024 to 25	42.3 °C

The shape of a year

Each month’s average since 2014, clear mornings. Bars start at 27 °C.

Show the numbers

Land surface temperature by calendar month, since 2014: every figure
When or what	Figure
January	41.8 °C
February	44.4 °C
March	40.8 °C
April	34.8 °C
May	30.9 °C
June	29.4 °C
July	30.1 °C
August	33.5 °C
September	42.5 °C
October	47.8 °C
November	45.6 °C
December	42.2 °C

Month by month

Month	Land surface temperature	Clear looks
October 2026	41.9 °C	0.8
September 2026	41.8 °C	0.6
August 2026	31.0 °C	1.0
July 2026	29.0 °C	0.9
June 2026	25.8 °C	0.7
May 2026	28.7 °C	0.6
April 2026	Seen too little	0.2
March 2026	Seen too little	0.0
February 2026	Seen too little	0.2
January 2026	38.3 °C	0.3
December 2025	Seen too little	0.1
November 2025	Seen too little	0.0
October 2025	47.9 °C	0.3
September 2025	41.4 °C	0.9
August 2025	32.5 °C	0.6
July 2025	30.0 °C	0.6
June 2025	30.8 °C	1.2
May 2025	30.6 °C	0.3
April 2025	37.8 °C	0.8
March 2025	39.5 °C	0.4
February 2025	Seen too little	0.0
January 2025	42.9 °C	0.3
December 2024	41.7 °C	0.3
November 2024	40.2 °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.