Moretele fire, July 2026 Madibeng, Moretele
The fire started on 18 July 2026 in Moretele, South Africa, and satellites saw it burning for 7 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 5,034 hectares from heat detections, spread across 2 municipalities.
It is the 22th largest in North West since 2016 (of 171 with a page). Number 24 in South Africa in 2026, of 147.
- Burnt area
- 5,034ha
- GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
- Duration
- 7days
- 18 Jul 2026 – 24 Jul 2026
- Municipalities hit
- 2
- municipalities
- Started on
- 18 Jul
- 2026
- Heat detections
- 119
- in a single hotspot: 199 MW
- Danger at start
- 43
- Very high · FWI index
- Energy released
- 1.4GW
- 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 26 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.
This area had burned before
80% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 2,547 ha in 2018, 1,052 ha in 2022, 3,108 ha in 2024. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 4,048 ha that had burned before.
What happened to each town
-
3,313 ha reached on 21 Jul0.9 %
-
Moretele where it started1,733 ha reached on 18 Jul1.2 %
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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18 Jul | 28.1 °C | 9 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 43 |
| 19 Jul | 27.6 °C | 9 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 44 |
| 20 Jul | 27.2 °C | 11 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 21 Jul | 27.2 °C | 11 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 42 |
| 22 Jul | 27.0 °C | 18 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 23 Jul | 26.6 °C | 23 % | 30 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 40 |
| 24 Jul | 25.3 °C | 8 % | 23 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 41 |
| 25 Jul after | 22.8 °C | 29 % | 20 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 26 Jul after | 23.5 °C | 29 % | 18 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 30 |
| 27 Jul after | 23.3 °C | 28 % | 28 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 28 Jul after | 25.3 °C | 19 % | 22 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 34 |
| 29 Jul after | 23.9 °C | 34 % | 29 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 30 Jul after | 25.7 °C | 24 % | 41 km/h | 0.0 mm | Very high 38 |
| 31 Jul after | 23.1 °C | 30 % | 27 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 1 Aug after | 22.4 °C | 26 % | 21 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 29 |
| 2 Aug after | 22.8 °C | 19 % | 26 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 32 |
| 3 Aug after | 24.7 °C | 15 % | 24 km/h | 0.0 mm | High 35 |
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 17 July 2026 the air beside the fire reached 189 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 121: 8.1 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 · 119Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
| Date and time | Satellite | FRP (MW) | Lat | Lon |
|---|
Other fires nearby
Frequently asked questions
- How long did the Moretele fire last?
- GWIS (Copernicus) dates it between 18 July 2026 and 24 July 2026: 7 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 5,034 hectares (50.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
- Which municipalities burned?
- The fire entered 2 municipalities: Madibeng (3,313 ha, 0.9 %); Moretele (1,733 ha, 1.2 %).
- What was the weather like?
- During the fire the temperature reached 28.1 °C, humidity dropped to 8 % and gusts hit 30 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 44, 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
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.