How long did the Polokwane fire last?

According to the heat detections seen by satellite, it burned from 14 October 2026 to 23 October 2026 (10 days between the first and the last detection). There is no perimeter yet to date it.

How much area did it burn?

There is no perimeter yet. Heat detections rebuild about 2,212 hectares with fire (22.1 km²), a rough figure; GWIS will give its own when it publishes the perimeter, which can take several days.

Which municipalities burned?

The fire entered 3 municipalities: Molemole (896 ha, 0.2 %); Blouberg (728 ha, 0.1 %); Polokwane (588 ha, 0.1 %).

Is the Polokwane fire still active?

Yes: satellites detected fire on 24 Oct 2026, 00:22 UTC. Check the emergency service for the official status.

What was the weather like?

During the fire the temperature reached 36.5 °C, humidity dropped to 7 % and gusts hit 51 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.

ZA · South Africa · 2026-10-14 → 2026-10-23

Polokwane fire, October 2026 Molemole, Blouberg, Polokwane

Burning · last detection 24 Oct 2026, 00:22 UTC

Satellites first detected fire on 14 October 2026 in Polokwane, South Africa. It has been active for 10 days, with 171 heat detections and an area with fire of about 2,212 hectares rebuilt from them, spread across 3 municipalities.

GWIS (Copernicus) has not yet published the perimeter of this fire. It rebuilds it from hotspots, which can take several days, and it does not always arrive. For now the area is the one rebuilt from heat detections (about 14 hectares per pixel). If the perimeter arrives, this page picks it up on its own and keeps the same address.

Is it still active?

Satellites detected fire on 24 Oct 2026, 00:22 UTC. Everything suggests it is still burning. Satellites pass a few times a day and cloud or smoke can hide the fire: a lack of detections is not an official extinction. Each country’s emergency service declares a fire contained or out.

Area with fire: ≈ 2,212ha; rebuilt from hotspots, no official perimeter yet
Duration: 10days; 14 Oct 2026 – 23 Oct 2026
Municipalities hit: 3; municipalities
Started on: 14 Oct; 2026
Heat detections: 171; in a single hotspot: 148 MW
Danger at start: 29; High · FWI index
Energy released: 1.5GW; sum of detected power

Play back 24 Oct 2026

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Oct23 Oct

How it evolved, day by day

14161718192021222324

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

36°high

51km/h · peak gust

7%lowest humidity

It had gone 7 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

What happened to each town

Molemole

896 ha reached on 17 Oct

0.2 %
Blouberg

728 ha reached on 18 Oct

0.1 %
Polokwane where it started

588 ha reached on 14 Oct

0.1 %

Area with fire inside each municipality, rebuilt from heat detections (about 14 hectares per VIIRS pixel). An estimate until the official perimeter arrives. 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)
13 Oct	33.5 °C	15 %	30 km/h	0.0 mm	High 29
14 Oct	30.3 °C	31 %	51 km/h	0.0 mm	High 32
15 Oct	31.8 °C	27 %	35 km/h	0.6 mm	High 23
16 Oct	33.0 °C	13 %	41 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
17 Oct	33.8 °C	7 %	29 km/h	0.0 mm	High 37
18 Oct	33.4 °C	14 %	34 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 40
19 Oct	35.8 °C	14 %	49 km/h	0.3 mm	Very high 49
20 Oct	29.5 °C	31 %	46 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
21 Oct	32.0 °C	17 %	32 km/h	0.0 mm	High 34
22 Oct	36.5 °C	9 %	42 km/h	0.0 mm	Very high 48
23 Oct	31.3 °C	24 %	48 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.

↔

Before · 7 Oct 2026

After · 23 Oct 2026

Before After

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 · Copernicus

On 19 October 2026 the air beside the fire reached 20 µg/m³ of PM2.5, but no daily average passed the WHO guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak20 µg/m³

Days over the guideline0 days

PM1022 µg/m³

Optical depth0.52

WHO 15

111213141516171819202122

Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

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 · 171Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.

⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.

Date and time	Satellite	FRP (MW)	Lat	Lon

Other fires nearby

All fires in South Africa ›

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Polokwane fire last?: According to the heat detections seen by satellite, it burned from 14 October 2026 to 23 October 2026 (10 days between the first and the last detection). There is no perimeter yet to date it.
How much area did it burn?: There is no perimeter yet. Heat detections rebuild about 2,212 hectares with fire (22.1 km²), a rough figure; GWIS will give its own when it publishes the perimeter, which can take several days.
Which municipalities burned?: The fire entered 3 municipalities: Molemole (896 ha, 0.2 %); Blouberg (728 ha, 0.1 %); Polokwane (588 ha, 0.1 %).
Is the Polokwane fire still active?: Yes: satellites detected fire on 24 Oct 2026, 00:22 UTC. Check the emergency service for the official status.
What was the weather like?: During the fire the temperature reached 36.5 °C, humidity dropped to 7 % and gusts hit 51 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

Satellite cross-check

NASA FIRMS ↗
GWIS · Copernicus ↗

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

What do you think is wrong?

Dates or duration Place or towns Burned area Name It was not a wildfire Same fire as another page Something else

What really happened?

Your connection to the fire (optional) Email (optional)

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 10177 · 112.

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.