AURSEEAursee
Wildfires in South Africa
Detected · VIIRS 375 m · Suomi NPP, NOAA-20, NOAA-21 · last 24 hours · updated 2026-10-12 08:29 UTC
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Regions
- Eastern Cape9 fires
- Free State6 fires
- Gauteng12 fires
- KwaZulu-Natal95 fires
- Limpopo32 fires
- Mpumalanga44 fires
- North West7 fires
- Northern Cape4 fires
- Western Cape7 fires
27 fires
Nothing matches.
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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 403,760 km² of South Africa at least once. In an average year it detected fire in 78,680 km², ranking 30th 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 2023, with 110,330 km² detected; the quietest was 2016, with 47,840 km². The 2021–2025 average is 16% 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.
July, August and September together hold 51% of the fire-days in the record. The single busiest day was 7 July 2024, with detections in 4,175 cells.
Ground that burns again
Of the 403,760 km² with at least one detection, 39% had detections in three or more different years.
| Years with a detection | km² | Share |
|---|---|---|
| 1 year | 168,470 | 42% |
| 2 years | 79,160 | 20% |
| 3 to 5 years | 106,420 | 26% |
| 6 to 10 years | 46,770 | 12% |
| 11 years or more | 2,950 | 0.7% |
The half-degree square with the most fire-days is centred at -26.25, 29.25 and holds 3.5% of the country's fire-days.
The figures
Show the table
| Year | Detected km² | Fire-days |
|---|---|---|
| 2012 | 85,350 | 117,627 |
| 2013 | 89,950 | 127,547 |
| 2014 | 88,790 | 124,619 |
| 2015 | 63,670 | 95,964 |
| 2016 | 47,840 | 78,086 |
| 2017 | 72,890 | 107,901 |
| 2018 | 71,730 | 105,636 |
| 2019 | 71,250 | 108,703 |
| 2020 | 72,530 | 102,236 |
| 2021 | 94,370 | 126,174 |
| 2022 | 76,250 | 101,470 |
| 2023 | 110,330 | 143,960 |
| 2024 | 88,940 | 120,918 |
| 2025 | 67,670 | 88,865 |
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
- Kingdom of eSwatini199 km
- Lesotho347 km
- Zimbabwe1,012 km
- Mozambique1,144 km
- Botswana1,170 km
- Namibia1,244 km
What sits behind each of these fires
Attached to every fire in the list above, and redrawn hourly.
