Programme director
Chairperson of the South African Weather Services Board
Chief executive officer of the South African Weather Services
Management of the South African Weather Services and the
Department of Environmental Affairs
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen
I am proud and elated to have been invited to this august occasion which reflects our government’s commitment to ensuring that investments in infrastructure benefit all our people. This investment by government in the upgrade of the weather radar network of our country is one that will ultimately benefit and improve the lives of all our people. It is also a crucial part of government’s broad efforts to ensure investment in our infrastructure system.
Whilst the new radar system we are launching today is new, South African weather scientists are not new to the system. In 1947, South Africa became the first country in the world to use radar to monitor cloud seeding experiments, which was quite a quantum leap at the time.
As government and the only shareholder, we must ensure that the weather service remains at the cutting edge of meteorological technological development to improve accuracy and for the Service to also remain relevant, in order to benefit us all.
We have invested R240 million for the upgrade of the weather radar network in the country which, I must hasten to add, is befitting of the
150 years’ celebration of organized meteorological service in South
Africa. At the completion of a three year project, South Africa will have 12 new radars and a total of 18 radar systems.
Ladies and gentlemen, the 1900s saw significant developments in science and technology. In the process, society transformed to embrace and rely on such technological developments. These developments must be of benefit more so to the rural communities of our country and as such they will add value to the lives of the rural and urban folks. As such, continuous technology improvement must shift away from being a luxury for any institution in pursuit of the betterment of our people’s lives.
The investment we launch today complements the existing technological infrastructure of SAWS such as the 1 400 automatic weather stations, 22 lightning detection sensors spread all over the country and satellite receiving equipment. It further means we will more than double weather radars from the current eleven to 23. I must compliment the Board on a visionary leadership which oversaw this investment.
Technology being one of the key ingredients of success in the modern day world, celebrating 150 years of organised meteorology means we also have to continuously evaluate the work of the national weather service. Over the years, the weather service has diligently served our communities in respect of disaster management in terms of droughts, floods, data and research for academia, as well as industry, particularly the aviation industry. Now the question is: what is our role going to the year 2100?
With the biggest challenge facing humanity in the 21st century being climate change, it is of paramount importance that we define our role as an institution against this challenge. The United Kingdom has its service which provides traditional meteorological services, with centres such as the Hadley Centre providing invaluable inputs on climate modelling and prediction.
The same can be said with the China Meteorological Administration which has academies providing applied meteorological science services. It is important as a country that we expand our capabilities on climate and atmospheric science, as well as climate change adaptation. There are opportunities within north to south and south to south cooperation in developing this capability.
In light of the importance of south to south cooperation, it is further necessary that we relook at who our clients are. I will submit that vehicles such as the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the African Union are institutions through which we can expand our services and share expertise and know-how amongst other African states, bringing to reality the foreign policy that suggests “a better South Africa, a better Africa, and a better world”.
We can indicate that within the region, SAWS has taken the leadership role with South Africa currently holding the chairpersonship role and hosting the Meteorological Association of Southern Africa (MASA) secretariat.
This is a clear indication of our commitment to the socioeconomic development of our region. Further, within the region still, the new SAWS radars will ensure complete coverage of Lesotho and Swaziland. The south-eastern parts of Botswana, southern Mozambique and the south-west Indian Ocean which are seasonally frequented by devastating tropical cyclones will also be covered by this infrastructure.
Expanding the scope of our services includes a refocus on marine weather and offering services to the maritime industry in the country. In order to fully craft the future organisation we are looking at, it is important that we build the necessary skills and capacity. At this juncture, it is important that I acknowledge the SAWS technical experts and service providers who were central in the implementation of this capital investment.
It is through projects like this that capacity and skills are built in the country. Beyond that, it is important to have a clear path of how are we going to contribute to the development of the next breed of scientists who will respond to the new mandate we envisage, with broader services and research areas of the new organisation. We need to ensure that we bring in particularly the previously disadvantaged and marginalised.
South Africa as a developmental state and a highly politicised country will not look kindly upon us if we do not transform ourselves and the institutions through which we serve our nation. I would like to be pragmatic and outline a vision for a future weather service. Of course it should include weather forecasting and data collection and management.
However it should also be central in climate prediction and research, including downscaling of climate predictions from global climate models.
The weather service of the future should address the needs of our communities and be strongly linked to communities and municipalities on early warning systems and disaster management, such as flood warning and fire hazard monitoring. The service should respond to climate dependent industries such as agriculture for long range, medium term climatic information and weather.
The service should provide real time data to the aviation and maritime operations and help in near term predictions. The future weather service should foster strong research ties with the water services sector, infrastructure development sector, urban planning and management, as well as science and technology development.
The new SAWS radar system we are launching here today is world class and superior to most of the systems utilised in other western countries. The new technical system is composed of 12 Doppler radar dishes around the country, each one of which has a 300 kilometres range to detect the intensity of storms, and a range of some 100 kilometres to detect air turbulence.
Two of the new devices are state of the art high resolution mobile X-band Doppler radar systems, designated for use at OR Tambo and Cape Town international airports. One of these devices is currently outside in the SAWS parking lot. These units are dedicated to the two major international airports to address aviation needs and ensure the safety of both passengers and those providing the services.
Ladies and gentlemen, a weather radar system is composed not only of the technical radar and computer components but also the skilled personnel who are able to operate and interpret the multiple aspects of the system. In South Africa, this new system of technical machinery and skilled people is one of the most advanced in the world.
This new system will assist considerably with what is known as “Nowcasting”. This effectively means that it will be able to do weather predictions of up to two hours from the present. The system can also predict the path of a storm and issue warnings to people in its path. However, the radar does not only see storms and severe weather, it can also detect wind movement in clear air.
The new South African radar system is so sensitive that it does this by detecting the movement of dust in the air. This means that, for example, if a major storm is occurring now, the radar system can calculate where the main rain will fall. It can also calculate how much. Such information can be used as early warning information for potential floods, and the appropriate authorities on the ground in the area can be warned in time.
Ladies and gentleman, the government of South Africa recognises the impact of weather and climate on the wellbeing of the country. This wellbeing is a human right and that forms the basis of investing in resources that gear us to respond to the challenges of climate variability and change, thus ensuring the protection of all South Africans.
I congratulate the board, executive and staff of the South African
Weather Services for this new technology. I believe as a country we stand to benefit immensely from it. I now officially launch the new radar network.
I thank you.
For media queries contact:
Sputnik Ratau
Cell: 082 874 2942
E-mail: RatauS@dwa.gov.za
Issued by: Department of Environmental Affairs
29 March 2010
Source: Department of Environmental Affairs (http://www.deat.gov.za/)
