SAWDOS is of the opinion that Weather and Weather Radar information should be free of charge to any member of the public, rich or poor. If you look at the USA, New Zealand and Australia you can get info from top to bottom free of charge. You can even get South African weather charts free from the USA. However here in South Africa we must PAY for lifesaving weather information.
Once again we have severe thunderstorms and still the people of this country have no free access to weather radars. 11 people died this weekend .....how many more people must die just because they have no free access to weather radar images and weather information in this country?
The decision to remove detailed static radar images from the public domain is totally contrarily to the fundamental objectives of weather organizations in most world countries where the aim is to provide the maximum amount of real-time accurate data to the widest range of their citizens free of charge. SAWS rather follow the commercial route instead and leave the public vulnerable to severe weather.
As far as limited access to certain general weather information is concerned one should ask whether the current limited information/data provided by the SA Weather Service is sufficient in protecting lives and property. The recent severe weather events in the past months indicated that the limited free weather information on their web-site is far from adequate to keep the public sufficiently informed.
Please sign this petition and forward the link to to as many people as possible. We need free weather information in South Africa!!
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