🇿🇦 South Africa: wildfires in September 2026
Unit: archived detection events, grouped by first-detection day and a roughly 11 km cell. One physical fire can span multiple records; hotspots can also be agricultural, industrial or urban. These counts are not a census of confirmed wildfires. The archive starts on August 3, 2026; the current month is incomplete.
South Africa, September 2026: 301 detection events archived over the covered period using kanari thresholds. Updated 18 October at 06:59.
Busiest day: 9 September, with 42 ignitions detected. -43% compared with August 2026.
"In September 2026, kanari archived 301 detection events in South Africa, with 0 still active at the last update. This is not a count of distinct confirmed physical wildfires. Peak observed fire radiative power: 766 MW."
Fire ignitions per day
Most powerful fires of the month
| Place | First detection (UTC) | Detections | MW |
|---|---|---|---|
| Babanango | 9 Sept, 15:30 | 166 | 766 |
| Wakkerstroom | 1 Sept, 08:32 | 42 | 752 |
| Swartklip | 28 Sept, 08:52 | 62 | 524 |
| Pearly Beach | 29 Sept, 09:21 | 39 | 521 |
| Cedarville | 14 Sept, 13:40 | 94 | 492 |
| Iswepe | 24 Sept, 05:22 | 176 | 454 |
| Grootvlei | 10 Sept, 13:42 | 24 | 412 |
| Middelburg | 26 Sept, 06:52 | 24 | 365 |
| Mmametlhake | 11 Sept, 11:52 | 58 | 347 |
| Steynsburg | 9 Sept, 07:21 | 22 | 318 |
Cite these figures
kanari (2026). Archived detection events, South Africa, September 2026: 301 records. https://kanari.io — accessed 2026-10-18.
Methodology: only significant fires are archived (corroborated by witnesses, or above detection and power thresholds); totals are not comparable to exhaustive official tallies. Full methodology and licence.
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