AURSEEAursee
Wildfires in Western Cape
Detected · VIIRS 375 m · Suomi NPP, NOAA-20, NOAA-21 · last 24 hours · updated 2026-10-12 09:19 UTC
Follow Western Cape: fire alerts by email
Fire alerts for Western Cape
Free. One email when satellites detect fire anywhere in Western Cape, then at most one update a day while fires continue.
Free. Pick a town and we email you when satellites detect fire within 30 km of it.
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 33,230 km² of Western Cape at least once. In an average year it detected fire in 3,850 km², ranking 8th 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 2017, with 6,770 km² detected; the quietest was 2023, with 1,870 km². The 2021–2025 average is 18% lower 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.
January, February and March together hold 40% of the fire-days in the record. The single busiest day was 3 November 2018, with detections in 497 cells.
Ground that burns again
Of the 33,230 km² with at least one detection, 13% had detections in three or more different years.
| Years with a detection | km² | Share |
|---|---|---|
| 1 year | 21,530 | 65% |
| 2 years | 7,220 | 22% |
| 3 to 5 years | 3,940 | 12% |
| 6 to 10 years | 499 | 1.5% |
| 11 years or more | 42 | 0.1% |
The half-degree square with the most fire-days is centred at -32.75, 18.25 and holds 8.0% of the region's fire-days.
The figures
Show the table
| Year | Detected km² | Fire-days |
|---|---|---|
| 2012 | 3,200 | 4,891 |
| 2013 | 3,780 | 5,555 |
| 2014 | 2,980 | 4,595 |
| 2015 | 5,110 | 7,372 |
| 2016 | 5,270 | 8,048 |
| 2017 | 6,770 | 10,321 |
| 2018 | 4,780 | 7,777 |
| 2019 | 2,990 | 4,890 |
| 2020 | 2,300 | 3,492 |
| 2021 | 2,660 | 3,909 |
| 2022 | 3,240 | 4,621 |
| 2023 | 1,870 | 2,945 |
| 2024 | 4,150 | 5,829 |
| 2025 | 4,750 | 7,106 |
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
- Karas, Namibia613 km
- Northern Cape726 km
- Hardap, Namibia890 km
- Quthing, Lesotho925 km
- Mohale's Hoek, Lesotho942 km
- Maseru, Lesotho962 km