Bitou fire, December 2025 Bitou, Kou-Kamma, George
The fire started on 27 December 2025 in Bitou, South Africa, and satellites saw it burning for 20 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 24,574 hectares from heat detections, spread across 3 municipalities.
It is the 7th largest in Western Cape since 2016 (of 164 with a page). Number 2 in South Africa in 2025, of 87.
- Burnt area
- 24,574ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 20days
- 27 Dec 2025 – 15 Jan 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 3
- municipalities
- Started on
- 27 Dec
- 2025
- Heat detections
- 1,292
- in a single hotspot: 537 MW
- Danger at start
- 13
- Moderate · FWI index
- Energy released
- 21.4GW
- sum of detected power
Where it burned
How it evolved, day by day
Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.
The weather it burned in
It had gone 3 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 1.2 mm on 17 Jan.
This area had burned before
44% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 7,582 ha in 2016, 1,247 ha in 2017, 129 ha in 2018, 1,794 ha in 2020, 695 ha in 2024.
- 2,143 ha Bitou fire, December 2016 3,821 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 427 ha Bitou fire, August 2024 2,168 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 129 ha Bitou fire, November 2018 3,530 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
What happened to each town
-
Bitou where it started17,709 ha reached on 27 Dec18 %
-
6,895 ha reached on 4 Jan1.9 %
-
13 ha reached on 14 Jan0.0 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance is from the town centre to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.
The weather day by day
ECMWF ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, the standard reference for past weather, and the Canadian Fire Weather Index (the same system Copernicus uses), computed by WorldFires from that data. Days after the fire run until the first rain.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)
| Day | High | Min. humidity | Peak gust | Rain | Danger (FWI) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 27 Dec | 25.7 °C | 56 % | 47 km/h | 0.3 mm | Moderate 13 |
| 28 Dec | 28.3 °C | 46 % | 46 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 29 Dec | 33.9 °C | 27 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 30 Dec | 35.3 °C | 30 % | 41 km/h | 0.7 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 31 Dec | 28.0 °C | 51 % | 42 km/h | 0.9 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 1 Jan | 27.9 °C | 47 % | 43 km/h | 0.5 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 2 Jan | 28.2 °C | 46 % | 42 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 15 |
| 3 Jan | 28.2 °C | 43 % | 43 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 17 |
| 4 Jan | 28.8 °C | 42 % | 47 km/h | 0.2 mm | Moderate 19 |
| 5 Jan | 31.3 °C | 31 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 6 Jan | 30.7 °C | 19 % | 55 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 7 Jan | 25.4 °C | 45 % | 58 km/h | 1.5 mm | Moderate 12 |
| 8 Jan | 32.2 °C | 26 % | 53 km/h | 0.2 mm | High 27 |
| 9 Jan | 25.1 °C | 49 % | 41 km/h | 0.1 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 10 Jan | 30.5 °C | 42 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 20 |
| 11 Jan | 35.3 °C | 35 % | 35 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 22 |
| 12 Jan | 30.6 °C | 50 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 13 Jan | 31.9 °C | 41 % | 38 km/h | 0.0 mm | Moderate 21 |
| 14 Jan | 31.3 °C | 46 % | 48 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 23 |
| 15 Jan | 19.9 °C | 71 % | 41 km/h | 13.9 mm | Very low 0 |
| 16 Jan after | 26.1 °C | 57 % | 37 km/h | 0.7 mm | Very low 3 |
| 17 Jan after | 26.8 °C | 49 % | 46 km/h | 1.2 mm | Low 6 |
Before and after, from space
Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.
If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.
The smoke
CAMS · CopernicusOn 7 January 2026 the air beside the fire reached 69 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 33: 2.2 times the WHO daily guideline (15).
Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.
Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)
Detections table · 1,292Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 6,180 haKou-Kamma14 December 2016 · 5 days · 18 km away
- 9,061 haKou-Kamma30 March 2017 · 7 days · 24 km away
- 11,731 haGeorgeAugust 2016 · 6 days · 27 km away
- 5,936 haDr Beyers Naude11 December 2016 · 9 days · 32 km away
- 4,808 haGeorgeNovember 2017 · 12 days · 34 km away
- 4,451 haGeorgeJune 2017 · 2 days · 38 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Bitou fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 27 December 2025 and 15 January 2026: 20 days between the first and last heat detection of the perimeter.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 24,574 hectares (245.7 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 3 municipalities: Bitou (17,709 ha, 18 %); Kou-Kamma (6,895 ha, 1.9 %); George (13 ha, 0.0 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 35.3 °C, humidity dropped to 19 % and gusts hit 58 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 31, class High.
- Where does this data come from?
- From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of South Africa (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.
Where to verify it
A satellite detection is not an official report. Final figures and the fire’s status are published by each country’s emergency service.
Emergency number: 10177 · 112
Satellite cross-check
Does something look wrong on this page?
This page is built from satellite data and official records, and it sometimes gets things wrong: the wrong dates, the wrong town, two fires merged into one, or something that was not a wildfire at all. If you know this fire first-hand (you live nearby, saw it, fought it or reported on it), tell us what really happened and we will check it.
Report an error
Where this data comes from
The perimeter comes from the Copernicus Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS), which rebuilds it from MODIS and VIIRS heat detections and publishes it under CC BY 4.0. It is not measured on imagery as in Europe, so it is an estimate. Heat detections come from the VIIRS sensors aboard Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20, distributed by NASA FIRMS at 375 m resolution. Municipal boundaries come from geoBoundaries ADM3 (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY 3.0 IGO)). The area per municipality is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ from each country’s official figure.