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Wildfires in Lesotho
Detected · VIIRS 375 m · Suomi NPP, NOAA-20, NOAA-21 · last 24 hours · updated 2026-10-11 05:23 UTC
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Regions
- Bereano fires now
- Butha-Butheno fires now
- Leribeno fires now
- Mafetengno fires now
- Maseruno fires now
- Mohale's Hoekno fires now
- Mokhotlongno fires now
- Qacha's Nekno fires now
- Quthing2 fires
- Thaba-Tsekano fires now
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Fire history, 2012–2025
Detected · VIIRS S-NPP 375 m · 0.01° cells (~1.1 km) · complete years 2012–2025 · built 2026-09-21
Between 2012 and 2025, VIIRS detected fire in 10,050 km² of Lesotho at least once. In an average year it detected fire in 1,230 km², ranking 112th of 200 countries.
Year by year
Detected area per year, km². Area of 0.01° cells with at least one detection in the year.
The busiest year was 2024, with 2,830 km² detected; the quietest was 2016, with 343 km². The 2021–2025 average is 49% higher than the 2012–2016 average.
Through the year
Share of all fire-days 2012–2025 by month. A fire-day is one cell with a detection on one day.
August, September and October together hold 74% of the fire-days in the record. The single busiest day was 11 September 2014, with detections in 145 cells.
Ground that burns again
Of the 10,050 km² with at least one detection, 18% had detections in three or more different years.
| Years with a detection | km² | Share |
|---|---|---|
| 1 year | 5,690 | 57% |
| 2 years | 2,540 | 25% |
| 3 to 5 years | 1,750 | 17% |
| 6 to 10 years | 68 | 0.7% |
| 11 years or more | 0.0 | 0.0% |
The half-degree square with the most fire-days is centred at -29.25, 28.25 and holds 15% of the country's fire-days.
The figures
Show the table
| Year | Detected km² | Fire-days |
|---|---|---|
| 2012 | 415 | 413 |
| 2013 | 1,800 | 1,961 |
| 2014 | 1,750 | 1,867 |
| 2015 | 959 | 976 |
| 2016 | 343 | 338 |
| 2017 | 993 | 1,032 |
| 2018 | 715 | 720 |
| 2019 | 1,580 | 1,785 |
| 2020 | 787 | 800 |
| 2021 | 1,210 | 1,216 |
| 2022 | 968 | 973 |
| 2023 | 2,310 | 2,423 |
| 2024 | 2,830 | 3,118 |
| 2025 | 572 | 566 |
Nearby countries
- Democratic Republic of the Congo898,730 km² in an average year
- Angola616,940 km² in an average year
- Zambia445,810 km² in an average year
- Mozambique404,050 km² in an average year
- Central African Republic340,550 km² in an average year
- South Sudan321,060 km² in an average year
- How these figures are madeDetected area, cells, and the single-satellite record.
Detected area counts every 0.01° cell with at least one VIIRS detection, so a small fire counts as a whole cell and a fire missed by cloud or between passes is absent. Borders: Natural Earth 1:10m. 2012 begins on 20 January.
Nearby countries
- South Africa347 km
- Kingdom of eSwatini445 km
- Zimbabwe1,358 km
- Botswana1,366 km
- Namibia1,421 km
- Mozambique1,468 km
What sits behind each of these fires
Attached to every fire in the list above, and redrawn hourly.
