Lephalale fire, October 2026 Lephalale, Thabazimbi
The fire started on 13 October 2026 in Lephalale, South Africa, and satellites saw it burning for 13 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 3,043 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 115th largest in Limpopo since 2016 (of 218 with a page). Number 77 in South Africa in 2026, of 152.
- Burnt area
- 3,043ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 13days
- 13 Oct 2026 – 25 Oct 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 13 Oct
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 94
- in a single hotspot: 91 MW
- Danger at start
- 22
- High · FWI index
- Average daily power
- 75MW
- detected power per day, on average
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 6 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
76% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,280 ha in 2017, 138 ha in 2019, 805 ha in 2023. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 2,326 ha that had burned before.
- 2,280 ha Modimolle/Mookgophong fire, September 2017 32,344 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 805 ha Modimolle/Mookgophong fire, July 2023 6,067 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
- 138 ha Modimolle/Mookgophong fire, October 2019 19,024 ha in total; the hectares shown are those it shares with this fire
How big is it?
London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).
Paris boundary: geoBoundaries · Institut national de l'information géographique et forestière (IGN-F) (Etalab Open License 2.0).
Madrid boundary: geoBoundaries · Open Data ESRI, IGN Central Registry of Cartography Area (CC BY 4.0).
Berlin boundary: geoBoundaries · Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (dl-de/by-2-0).
This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.
What happened to each town
-
Lephalale where it started2,992 ha reached on 13 Oct0.2 %
-
82 ha0.0 %
Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area 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) · forecast models, provisional until the ERA5 reanalysis arrives
| Day | High | Min. humidity | Peak gust | Rain | Danger (FWI) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13 Oct | 32.4 °C | 18 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 22 |
| 14 Oct | 31.5 °C | 22 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 26 |
| 15 Oct | 31.7 °C | 25 % | 27 km/h | 0.1 mm | High 25 |
| 16 Oct | 32.3 °C | 23 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 27 |
| 17 Oct | 32.6 °C | 20 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 31 |
| 18 Oct | 34.3 °C | 12 % | 34 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 19 Oct | 33.6 °C | 12 % | 54 km/h | 0.3 mm | Very high 49 |
| 20 Oct | 31.2 °C | 9 % | 31 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 21 Oct | 31.5 °C | 17 % | 32 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 36 |
| 22 Oct | 35.2 °C | 10 % | 45 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 49 |
| 23 Oct | 33.7 °C | 9 % | 44 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 48 |
| 24 Oct | 31.0 °C | 27 % | 37 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 25 Oct | 32.9 °C | 20 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 26 Oct after | 34.5 °C | 12 % | 39 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 27 Oct after | 33.5 °C | 11 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 46 |
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 15 October 2026 the air beside the fire reached 58 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 · 94Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
- 6,067 haModimolle/MookgophongJuly 2023 · 8 days · 6 km away
- 5,027 haModimolle/Mookgophong10 October 2026 · 7 days · 10 km away
- 32,344 haModimolle/Mookgophong10 September 2017 · 14 days · 11 km away
- 19,024 haModimolle/Mookgophong15 October 2019 · 5 days · 12 km away
- 5,614 haLephalaleSeptember 2026 · 2 days · 15 km away
- 4,747 haLephalaleOctober 2023 · 4 days · 16 km away
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Lephalale fire last?
- According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 13 October 2026 to 25 October 2026 (13 days). The perimeter dates it from 17 October 2026 to 25 October 2026.
- How much area did it burn?
- The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 3,043 hectares (30.4 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Lephalale (2,992 ha, 0.2 %); Thabazimbi (82 ha, 0.0 %).
- Is the Lephalale fire still active?
- No fire detections since 25 Oct 2026, 12:53 UTC. A lack of detections is not an official extinction.
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 35.2 °C, humidity dropped to 9 % and gusts hit 54 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 49, class Very 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 · Emergency number and official warnings ›
Satellite cross-check
History of this page · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 25 October 2026.
- Area: 2,844 → 3,043 ha.
- Page published (2,844 ha).
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
How we know this
- Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
- Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 17 October 2026 to 25 October 2026. 94 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
- We have not matched this page with any official record.
- Weather: ECMWF IFS model, provisional until the ERA5 reanalysis arrives.
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.