Climate and weather data

Near real-time South African weather data is available from the South African Weather Service (SAWS) and the Agricultural Resource Council (ARC), with each maintaining a set of automatic weather stations across the country. These data need to be paid for, although special conditions exist, for example, if you are busy with postgraduate studies.

The South African Atlas of Climatology and Agrohydrology (SAAACA) provides freely available daily weather data at the quaternary catchment scale for the period extending from 1950 up to 1999 (Schulze, 2007). These data are available through the SAPWAT model and will be made available in the WRO soon. The dataset is currently being updated to include 2000-2019 in a WRC project (2019/2020-00205 ) led by UKZN.

Free daily weather data is available from various platforms, such as NASA-POWER and CHIRPS (rainfall estimates) (see below). For many of these platforms the accuracy of the data still needs to be assessed.

SOURCES OF WEATHER DATA

Distribution of automatic weather stations at the ARC (453 locations) and SAWS (251 locations)

NASA-POWER (Prediction of Worldwide Energy Resources) (Downloadable in a DSSAT-ready format)

CHIRPS - Rainfall Estimates from Rain Gauge and Satellite Observations

Climate Research Unit Time-series data v4.05 (high resolution gridded datasets)

CLIMWAT - FAO climatic database used with CROPWAT

National Climate Change Response Database (Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment)

Climate Change Prediction Data

South African Atlas of Climatology and Agrohydrology (SAAACA) (1950-1999) (now available in the WRO)