Free tools · Measured from space

Heat in Ward 4, Thulamela

Summer 2025/26: the ground in Ward 4, Thulamela reached about 36 °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 +3.7 °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

36.0 °CThe ground, not the airDecember to February, clear mornings
2017/18Hottest summer since 201445.6 °C; the coolest was 2025/26, 36.0 °C
+3.7 °CAgainst its municipalityThe ward’s summers against the municipality’s average, 9 summers since 2014

Every summer since 1995

Each summer (December to February, named by the year it ends) on clear mornings. Bars start at 33 °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, 1995 to 2026: every figure
When or what	Figure
Summer 1994 to 95	39.7 °C
Summer 1997 to 98	35.7 °C
Summer 2002 to 03	42.3 °C
Summer 2015 to 16	41.9 °C
Summer 2017 to 18	45.6 °C
Summer 2019 to 20	42.4 °C
Summer 2020 to 21	41.8 °C
Summer 2021 to 22	36.2 °C
Summer 2022 to 23	38.9 °C
Summer 2023 to 24	39.1 °C
Summer 2024 to 25	40.8 °C
Summer 2025 to 26	36.0 °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	37.7 °C
February	37.5 °C
March	35.8 °C
April	32.3 °C
May	28.2 °C
June	25.7 °C
July	25.4 °C
August	31.6 °C
September	38.3 °C
October	44.0 °C
November	45.3 °C
December	43.5 °C

Month by month

Month	Land surface temperature	Clear looks
October 2026	41.0 °C	1.9
September 2026	34.1 °C	1.0
August 2026	29.6 °C	3.0
July 2026	24.9 °C	2.1
June 2026	25.1 °C	1.6
May 2026	27.5 °C	2.6
April 2026	31.9 °C	0.4
March 2026	Seen too little	0.0
February 2026	38.9 °C	1.0
January 2026	25.7 °C	0.7
December 2025	43.3 °C	1.5
November 2025	39.5 °C	1.9
October 2025	42.6 °C	2.0
September 2025	39.1 °C	2.0
August 2025	32.2 °C	1.9
July 2025	25.2 °C	2.8
June 2025	26.9 °C	2.0
May 2025	27.3 °C	1.1
April 2025	32.6 °C	2.1
March 2025	35.3 °C	0.3
February 2025	Seen too little	0.2
January 2025	39.3 °C	1.0
December 2024	42.3 °C	1.0
November 2024	47.1 °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.

Thulamela 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.