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Wildfires in Northern Cape
Detected · VIIRS 375 m · Suomi NPP, NOAA-20, NOAA-21 · last 24 hours · updated 2026-10-12 12:28 UTC
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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 2026-09-23
Between 2012 and 2025, VIIRS detected fire in 23,560 km² of Northern Cape at least once. In an average year it detected fire in 2,450 km², ranking 9th of 9 regions of South Africa.
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 2022, with 6,310 km² detected; the quietest was 2014, with 997 km². The 2021–2025 average is 100% 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 45% of the fire-days in the record. The single busiest day was 30 September 2022, with detections in 340 cells.
Ground that burns again
Of the 23,560 km² with at least one detection, 9.4% had detections in three or more different years.
| Years with a detection | km² | Share |
|---|---|---|
| 1 year | 17,780 | 75% |
| 2 years | 3,560 | 15% |
| 3 to 5 years | 1,840 | 7.8% |
| 6 to 10 years | 342 | 1.5% |
| 11 years or more | 38 | 0.2% |
The half-degree square with the most fire-days is centred at -28.25, 23.75 and holds 21% of the region's fire-days.
The figures
Show the table
| Year | Detected km² | Fire-days |
|---|---|---|
| 2012 | 4,750 | 5,739 |
| 2013 | 1,390 | 2,398 |
| 2014 | 997 | 1,755 |
| 2015 | 1,090 | 1,844 |
| 2016 | 1,250 | 2,163 |
| 2017 | 1,710 | 2,654 |
| 2018 | 1,680 | 2,550 |
| 2019 | 1,030 | 1,904 |
| 2020 | 1,420 | 2,101 |
| 2021 | 4,520 | 5,346 |
| 2022 | 6,310 | 6,996 |
| 2023 | 5,270 | 6,113 |
| 2024 | 1,470 | 2,215 |
| 2025 | 1,360 | 2,126 |
Other regions of South Africa
- KwaZulu-Natal21,840 km² in an average year
- Mpumalanga14,540 km² in an average year
- Eastern Cape12,280 km² in an average year
- Limpopo9,110 km² in an average year
- North West6,130 km² in an average year
- Gauteng4,600 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 regions
- Maseru, Lesotho423 km
- Free State428 km
- Leribe, Lesotho443 km
- Mohale's Hoek, Lesotho447 km
- Southern, Botswana447 km
- Thaba-Tseka, Lesotho452 km