Overhead.

Fire danger in Pretoria today

Fire danger in Pretoria is low right now, at a fire-danger index of 11. It peaks at about 14 (high) around 12:00. Ordinary care is enough, but the veld is dry enough to carry a fire, so mind cigarette butts and hot coals.

Fire danger hour by hour in Pretoria

The fire-danger index combines temperature, how dry the air is, how hard the wind is blowing and how long it has been since meaningful rain. It is not a chance of fire — it is how fast and how fiercely one would run if it started.

HourIndexLevel
Today
13:0011 low
14:0012 low
15:0012 high
16:0012 low
17:0011 low
18:007 low
19:005 low
20:004 low
21:004 low
22:004 low
23:004 low
Tomorrow
00:003 low
01:003 low
02:003 low
03:002 low
04:002 low
05:002 low
06:001 low
07:002 low
08:002 low
09:004 low
10:008 low
11:0012 low
12:0014 high

Under 12 is low, 12 to 24 high, 25 to 49 very high, 50 to 74 severe, and 75 and above extreme. The number climbs through the middle of the day because the air dries out as it warms, and it drops back after sunset when the humidity comes up again.

Why the number is where it is today

It is about 25° in Pretoria with the humidity around 27% and the wind at 1 km/h. Only about 0.9 mm has fallen in the last three days, so the grass and leaf litter are close to as dry as the air will let them be. Gusts stay under 18 km/h in the next twelve hours, which keeps the ceiling on how fast anything could run.

Active fires near Pretoria

Satellites passing over southern Africa pick up the heat of a burning fire directly. These are detections from the last twelve hours within 150 km, newest first — a detection is a hot spot seen from orbit, which is usually a veld or land-clearing fire and is sometimes a sugar-cane burn or a large industrial flare.

Nothing is close enough to threaten the town itself, but smoke travels much further than fire does — a haze on the horizon usually comes from one of these.

Braai, burning and the rules today

Yes, with ordinary sense: a contained braai, nothing dry touching it, and coals properly out before you go inside.

Two things are true every day of the year, not only the bad ones. Under the National Veld and Forest Fire Act you are liable for a fire that starts on your property and spreads, and that liability does not depend on the weather. And a discarded cigarette, a grinder throwing sparks, or a braai left with coals still alive is the start of most of the fires anyone can put a cause to.

When Pretoria’s fire season is

South Africa has two fire seasons, in opposite halves of the year, because it has two rainfall regimes. The summer-rainfall interior and east burn in the dry, windy months from about May to October, when last summer's grass has cured and nothing has fallen on it for months. The winter-rainfall southwestern Cape burns in the opposite half, roughly December to March, when the fynbos is at its driest and the berg wind blows. That is why a national fire map is never quiet: something in the country is always in season.

The Highveld's fire season is the mirror image of its rain: the grass grows through the summer wet season, cures to tinder over the dry winter, and burns from about May until the first storms arrive in October, with the worst days usually in August and September. It is grass, not forest, so a fire here moves fast and low rather than crowning — which is also why a ploughed or burnt firebreak works, and why the National Veld and Forest Fire Act puts the duty to prepare one on the landowner every year before the season starts.

More for Pretoria

Fire danger nearby

Overhead is a free guide built on live open weather data from Open-Meteo (CC BY 4.0). It is advisory only — for official warnings and emergencies, follow the South African Weather Service.