WHETHER YOU LIKE THE WEATHER OR NOT
My husband Kevin laughs at me and says that my favorite TV program is the weather! It is true, I am obsessed with the weather, I think it comes from flying hot-air balloons and having to know exactly what the weather is doing and what it is expected to do. I have a mini weather station next to my computer that reads the temperature inside and outside and has other lovely little features that I like to fiddle with. There is a beautiful brass barometer on the wall that I tap occasionally and check on everyday. My other obsession is fishing and we all know that the weather influences fishing and the TV weather update may not tell you everything you need to know.
There is a great website that is well worth a visit if you are keen on fishing in the Belfast/Dullstroom area. It is the Dullstroom Village Weather Station site, n.co.za/~charval/ Here you will find up to date information on the current weather in Dullstroom, it is updated every 30 minutes (not during thunderstorms). This is a private weather station and they rely on us to click on their sponsors to keep the site going.
The weather site features current conditions which include cloud cover, mist rain etc. Dewpoint and humidity. Under temperature it will show you the current temperature and "what it feels like" which takes into consideration the wind chill factor. It lists the temperatures rate of change and today's high and low. Under rainfall it lists hourly, today, monthly and a total for the season.
The 5-day outlook shows (in pretty pictures) the forecast for the next 5 days. Your wind direction is shown along with moon rise time and moon set time. There is a FDI index and a UV index. There is also a warning section that will tell you of anything you need to worry about, like strong winds, heavy rain and Viking raids (only kidding!).
The barometer shows current reading and trend. The sunrise and sunset times are listed.
The cloud cover section has two cameras one pointing West North West and the other East South East. There is a map of Southern Africa showing cloud cover, rain and fires. You can click on this map for more detailed information.
The rainfall and wind shows seasons rainfall highs and lows as well as wind speeds and directions.
The seasons highs and lows shows the past two seasons temperature highs and lows as well as the rainfall daily high and monthly high. Did you know that the hottest day this season was on 18 December 2009 and reached 35 degrees C?
You can click on the storm radar for Dullstroom and it will take you to the S.A Weather Services storm radar for Irene. You can then click on “Ermelo’ for a more localised view.
All of the above information is on their home page. They have other pages with more detailed information like.....
The weather details page has very detailed temperature and rainfall charts with graphs and pie charts. The S.A.W.S page links to the South African Weather Service website which is handy if you are fishing anywhere else in South Africa. The S.A Dams page shows the weekly state of South Africa's dams, listed by Province. The world weather page links to the Severe Weather Information Centre which has "official observation and official warnings". This site covers the whole world and shows tropical cyclones (there is one heading for Madagascar at the moment) as well as warnings of heavy rain and snow. Interesting if you are fishing anywhere other than Belfast and South Africa.
My favorite page is the fishing almanac which has some lovely sayings on it, for example, "do you know C.P.R? Catch, Photograph and Release!" This page gives a mountain of information about how barometric pressure affects fishing and the moon info for the month and how it also influences fishing. There is the Dullstroom Monthly Soluner Flyfishing Calendar which shows up to two months worth of best fishing times. By the way the best fishing dates in February 2010 are 14th - 16th February, so remember to take your Valentine fishing!
The photo page shows no fish, but there are some lovely views of Dullstroom and a collection of photos of indigenous flowers that are out in bloom in the area.
On the glossary page you will find definitions for all the fancy terms used such as dew point separation and how to tell the difference between fog and mist.
Lastly there is a contact us page and I encourage you to fill in this little form just to let the weather station people know how much we appreciate the work that they do.
Heather Harvey