Motivation behind the myWeather weather station network

Weather is a primary factor for daily activities in the greater Cape Town region, as any resident will readily attest.  Moreover, the weather is highly variable in space and time, displaying strong changes during the course of the day and from place to place across the Peninsula.  The daily weather plays a significant role in may critical issues including extreme events (storms, flooding, heat waves, etc.), environmental conditions (pollution, strong winds, etc.), and a range of commercial and recreational activities (sailing, tourism, shipping, traffic, etc.).  Given the importance of the weather to daily activities, there is a remarkable lack of real-time weather information available, in part due to the lack of monitoring. 



The myWeather project seeks to monitor weather in the greater Cape Town region, primarily to support educational activities in the primary and secondary school system, but also to inform the general public on real time weather state, and contribute to the research activities at the University of Cape Town.  In terms of the primary purpose of the network, education in the schools, myWeather seeks to encourage applied science, mathematics, and geography skills by using the environment and the dynamics of the real-time weather as a multi-disciplinary integrating tool.  The principle focus the project serves teachers and learners in classroom activities, providing them with historic and real time observations of the weather over the internet. Additional material from other resources of CSAG is also made available (eg. satellite imagery, forecasts) to complement the base information. These are used in the classroom to enhance learner awareness of the physical processes occuring around them, skills with respect to weather observation and general data interpretation, and provide real-world examples of the environment they can relate to.  Similarly, teachers can draw on the material to practically demonstrate the theoretical components of classwork.


The project is grounded on an infrastructure of weather stations sited initially at primary and secondary schools, but also include other non-school based sites selected for strategic or other reasons.  Most of the stations sited at schools were the WeatherlinkII weather stations (above images and see  The Instrumentation) and were the first stations we installed about four years ago. These have for various reasons (wear and tear, software changes) become unworkable and we are replacing these with Vantage Pro weather stations as funding becomes available. Sites developed have been selected largely out of pragmatic needs, which give appropriate coverage and are secure. This network is currently in place as a pilot project (~8 stations) and it is our hope that we will extend it as funding becomes available.

Should you want to sponsor a weather station, or know of an organization that would be interested in sponsoring a weather station, please contact us. As CSAG no longer has funding to purchase any more stations, we are now dependant on sponsorships to expand the network. The kind sponsorship of a weather station is acknowleged on the myWeather Sponsors page and we encourage you to take a look at who is helping you monitor Cape Towns weather. Currently (01/02/05) the cost of a GPRS-equipped wireless weather station is about R11 000 with an annual R3000 running cost.

Should you have any questions or comments, please contact us.