Free tools · Measured from space

Heat in Ward 26, Bushbuckridge

Summer 2025/26: the ground in Ward 26, Bushbuckridge reached about 31 °C on clear mornings. That is the ground (roofs, roads, soil), not the air. The coolest summer since 2014. In summer the ground here reads +0.9 °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

30.6 °CThe ground, not the airDecember to February, clear mornings
2019/20Hottest summer since 201446.4 °C; the coolest was 2025/26, 30.6 °C
+0.9 °CAgainst its municipalityThe ward’s summers against the municipality’s average, 6 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	36.2 °C
Summer 1994 to 95	34.1 °C
Summer 1996 to 97	26.4 °C
Summer 1997 to 98	36.2 °C
Summer 1998 to 99	34.8 °C
Summer 2000 to 01	37.5 °C
Summer 2006 to 07	42.3 °C
Summer 2012 to 13	37.4 °C
Summer 2014 to 15	39.5 °C
Summer 2018 to 19	41.5 °C
Summer 2019 to 20	46.4 °C
Summer 2022 to 23	37.2 °C
Summer 2023 to 24	38.2 °C
Summer 2025 to 26	30.6 °C

The shape of a year

Each month’s average since 2014, clear mornings. Bars start at 24 °C.

Show the numbers

Land surface temperature by calendar month, since 2014: every figure
When or what	Figure
January	40.2 °C
February	38.4 °C
March	37.2 °C
April	33.3 °C
May	29.2 °C
June	27.2 °C
July	27.0 °C
August	31.4 °C
September	40.1 °C
October	44.9 °C
November	43.0 °C
December	41.8 °C

Month by month

Month	Land surface temperature	Clear looks
October 2026	38.8 °C	2.7
September 2026	37.5 °C	2.0
August 2026	27.9 °C	3.3
July 2026	24.6 °C	2.0
June 2026	24.2 °C	1.9
May 2026	26.7 °C	2.1
April 2026	31.7 °C	0.7
March 2026	Seen too little	0.0
February 2026	36.1 °C	0.4
January 2026	Seen too little	0.0
December 2025	25.1 °C	1.3
November 2025	Seen too little	0.0
October 2025	45.9 °C	1.0
September 2025	37.4 °C	2.9
August 2025	30.5 °C	2.4
July 2025	25.6 °C	1.5
June 2025	27.2 °C	3.9
May 2025	29.2 °C	1.9
April 2025	32.3 °C	2.9
March 2025	Seen too little	0.2
February 2025	Seen too little	0.0
January 2025	37.7 °C	0.5
December 2024	Seen too little	0.0
November 2024	38.8 °C	1.1

“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.

Bushbuckridge 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.