Complaints regarding the SA Weather Service

The SAWDOS received several emails and SMS messages regarding the current service delivery of the SA Weather Service ala predictions, wrong information, incorrect severe weather warnings, web-site problems subscription services, non availability of free weather radar images etc.  The SAWDOS acknowledged all emails and SMS messages in this regard.

The SAWDOS would like to make it very clear that SAWDOS is an independent non profitable organization not affiliated to the SA Weather Service in any way.  The SAWDOS has indicated in the past that it distances itself from the SAWS and several reasons were given for this decision.

The SAWDOS would like to thank all those who send emails and SMS message to highlight problems relating to the SAWS.  SAWDOS would however like to advise the public to direct complaints to the SAWS and not to the SAWDOS.

Complaints can be viewed and send to the SA Weather Service by clicking HERE.

SA National Severe Weather Warnings: 3 December 2012 04h00 SAST

The SA Weather Service Severe Weather Warnings was last updated yesterday morning (02/12/2012) at 04:59:04.


Readers, please note that the SAWDOS is not responsible for the contents or correctness, or timely updates of Severe Weather Warnings by the SA Weather Service. The issue of severe weather warnings are the sole responsibility of the SA Weather Service.

Petition: The Minister; SA Parliament; South African Weather Service: Request: FREE detailed weather radar images. MAKE A DIFFERENCE

Change.org|Online Petition Form

Thank you very much to those who signed and shared the petition. So far 320 people signed the petition.


With 320 signatures we will not achieve our goal. We need a few thousand people to sign the petition. It will be of no use to only have a few hundred signatures. SAWDOS therefore request people to spread the word about the petition. We need to get the message out!! Use any of the social media to get the word out. The petition will run until the end of November 2012. If there is enough signatures SAWDOS will go ahead to request the Minister, Parliament and SAWS to once again make free radar images available to the general public. In-sufficient signatures will indicate that there is really no support to lobby authorities for free radar images. This petition will decide the final outcome of free radar images in South Africa.

Link to petition:   http://www.change.org/petitions/the-minister-sa-parliament-south-african-weather-service-request-free-detailed-weather-radar-images

- SAWDOS

Petition: The Minister; SA Parliament; South African Weather Service: Request: FREE detailed weather radar images. MAKE A DIFFERENCE

Change.org|Online Petition Form

Thank you very much to those who signed and shared the petition. So far 308 people signed the petition.


With 301 signatures we will not achieve our goal. We need a few thousand people to sign the petition. It will be of no use to only have a few hundred signatures. SAWDOS therefore request people to spread the word about the petition. We need to get the message out!! Use any of the social media to get the word out. The petition will run until the end of November 2012. If there is enough signatures SAWDOS will go ahead to request the Minister, Parliament and SAWS to once again make free radar images available to the general public. In-sufficient signatures will indicate that there is really no support to lobby authorities for free radar images. This petition will decide the final outcome of free radar images in South Africa.

Link to petition:   http://www.change.org/petitions/the-minister-sa-parliament-south-african-weather-service-request-free-detailed-weather-radar-images

- SAWDOS

Petition: The Minister; SA Parliament; South African Weather Service: Request: FREE detailed weather radar images. MAKE A DIFFERENCE

Change.org|Online Petition Form

Thank you very much to those who signed and shared the petition. So far 301 people signed the petition.


With 301 signatures we will not achieve our goal. We need a few thousand people to sign the petition. It will be of no use to only have a few hundred signatures. SAWDOS therefore request people to spread the word about the petition. We need to get the message out!! Use any of the social media to get the word out. The petition will run until the end of November 2012. If there is enough signatures SAWDOS will go ahead to request the Minister, Parliament and SAWS to once again make free radar images available to the general public. In-sufficient signatures will indicate that there is really no support to lobby authorities for free radar images. This petition will decide the final outcome of free radar images in South Africa.

Link to petition:   http://www.change.org/petitions/the-minister-sa-parliament-south-african-weather-service-request-free-detailed-weather-radar-images

- SAWDOS

Petition: The Minister; SA Parliament; South African Weather Service: Request: FREE detailed weather radar images. MAKE A DIFFERENCE

Change.org|Online Petition Form

Thank you very much to those who signed and shared the petition. So far 289 people signed the petition.

66 Signatures This Week | 289 Signatures Total
18 from Facebook | 2 from Email | 16 from Twitter
1711 signatures still needed to reach the goal of 2000

We need a few thousand people to sign the petition. It will be of no use to only have a few hundred signatures. SAWDOS therefore request people to spread the word about the petition. We need to get the message out!! Use any of the social media to get the word out. The petition will run until the end of November 2012. If there is enough signatures SAWDOS will go ahead to request the Minister, Parliament and SAWS to once again make free radar images available to the general public. In-sufficient signatures will indicate that there is really no support to lobby authorities for free radar images. This petition will decide the final outcome of free radar images in South Africa.

- SAWDOS

Petition: The Minister; SA Parliament; South African Weather Service: Request: FREE detailed weather radar images. MAKE A DIFFERENCE

Change.org|Online Petition Form

Thank you very much to those who signed and shared the petition. So far 277 people signed the petition. We need a few thousand people to sign the petition. It will be of no use to only have a few hundred signatures. SAWDOS therefore request people to spread the word about the petition. We need to get the message out!! Use any of the social media to get the word out. The petition will run until the end of November 2012. If there is enough signatures SAWDOS will go ahead to request the Minister, Parliament and SAWS to once again make free radar images available to the general public. In-sufficient signatures will indicate that there is really no support to lobby authorities for free radar images. This petition will decide the final outcome of free radar images in South Africa.

- SAWDOS

Petition: The Minister; SA Parliament; South African Weather Service: Request: FREE detailed weather radar images.

Change.org|Online Petition Form

Thank you very much to those who signed and shared the petition. So far 251 people signed the petition. We need a few thousand people to sign the petition. It will be of no use to only have a few hundred signatures. SAWDOS therefore request people to spread the word about the petition. We need to get the message out!! Use any of the social media to get the word out. The petition will run until the end of November 2012. If there is enough signatures SAWDOS will go ahead to request the Minister, Parliament and SAWS to once again make free radar images available to the general public. In-sufficient signatures will indicate that there is really no support to lobby authorities for free radar images. This petition will decide the final outcome of free radar images in South Africa.

- SAWDOS

Petition: The Minister; SA Parliament; South African Weather Service: Request: FREE detailed weather radar images.

Change.org|Online Petition Form

Thank you very much to those who signed and shared the petition. So far 240 people signed the petition. We need a few thousand people to sign the petition. It will be of no use to only have a few hundred signatures. SAWDOS therefore request people to spread the word about the petition. We need to get the message out!! Use any of the social media to get the word out. The petition will run until the end of November 2012. If there is enough signatures SAWDOS will go ahead to request the Minister, Parliament and SAWS to once again make free radar images available to the general public. In-sufficient signatures will indicate that there is really no support to lobby authorities for free radar images. This petition will decide the final outcome of free radar images in South Africa.

- SAWDOS

Petition: The Minister; SA Parliament; South African Weather Service: Request: FREE detailed weather radar images.

Change.org|Online Petition Form

Thank you very much to those who signed and shared the petition. So far 224 people signed the petition. We need a few thousand people to sign the petition. It will be of no use to only have a few hundred signatures. SAWDOS therefore request people to spread the word about the petition. We need to get the message out!! Use any of the social media to get the word out. The petition will run until the end of November 2012. If there is enough signatures SAWDOS will go ahead to request the Minister, Parliament and SAWS to once again make free radar images available to the general public. In-sufficient signatures will indicate that there is really no support to lobby authorities for free radar images. This petition will decide the final outcome of free radar images in South Africa.

- SAWDOS

Petition: The Minister; SA Parliament; South African Weather Service: Request: FREE detailed weather radar images.

Change.org|Online Petition Form

Thank you very much to those who signed and shared the petition. So far 170 people signed the petition. We need a few thousand people to sign the petition. It will be of no use to only have a few hundred signatures. SAWDOS therefore request people to spread the word about the petition. We need to get the message out!! Use any of the social media to get the word out. The petition will run until the end of November 2012. If there is enough signatures SAWDOS will go ahead to request the Minister, Parliament and SAWS to once again make free radar images available to the general public. In-sufficient signatures will indicate that there is really no support to lobby authorities for free radar images. This petition will decide the final outcome of free radar images in South Africa.

- SAWDOS

Petition: The Minister; SA Parliament; South African Weather Service: Request: FREE detailed weather radar images.

Change.org|Online Petition Form

Thank you very much to those who signed and shared the petition. So far 84 people signed the petition. We need a few thousand people to sign the petition. It will be of no use to only have a few hundred signatures. SAWDOS therefore request people to spread the word about the petition. We need to get the message out!! Use any of the social media to get the word out. The petition will run until the end of November 2012. If there is enough signatures SAWDOS will go ahead to request the Minister, Parliament and SAWS to once again make free radar images available to the general public. In-sufficient signatures will indicate that there is really no support to lobby authorities for free radar images. This petition will decide the final outcome of free radar images in South Africa.

- SAWDOS

Petition for free detailed weather radar images in South Africa

As discussed earlier on Twitter, here is a petition to lobby the Minister, and the Environmental Affairs and Tourism Portfolio Committee as well as the SA Weather Service to once again make free detailed weather radar images and critical weather information and data available to the general public free of any charges.

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!!

Change.org|Create a Petition

Extreme winter weather conditions expected by the South African Weather Service

The South African Weather Service is continuing to monitor the weather system that is expected to cause a range of extreme weather conditions over the majority of South Africa as from today, Monday, 6 August 2012 onwards.

The areas most likely to be affected are as follows: Western Cape, Eastern Cape, Northern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Free State, Mpumalanga and Gauteng as well as the southern parts of North West province. In other words, the only province not to be directly affected by these extreme winter conditions will be Limpopo province.

The cause of the above-mentioned extreme weather conditions will be the combination of a well-defined cut-off low pressure system (located in the upper regions of the atmosphere), interacting with a cold frontal system. An additional feature associated with this weather pattern, is the presence of a strong surface high (also known as an anticyclone) that will be ridging very strongly overland, immediately following the passage of the cold front. This process of surface ridging is expected to advect (i.e. move horizontally) very cold air from our sub-Antarctic southern ocean areas. Daytime temperatures for South Africa are thus likely to drop significantly over the majority of the interior between today and tomorrow, with many areas likely to experience daytime maximums of only 10˚C (or even less!) by tomorrow.

The public is thus warned and advised that, particularly in terms of low temperatures, this system is expected to be quite severe. Furthermore, the public is also urged to be aware that (apart from the bitterly cold conditions) a range of severe/extreme weather phenomena can be expected to develop in association with this rapidly-developing system. These extreme phenomena predicted by SA Weather Service forecasters include heavy rainfall, snow (heavy in places over the north-eastern high ground of the Eastern Cape) as well as gale-force winds, combined with very rough seas in the open ocean off the coast of the Western Cape and Eastern Cape.

For parts of the open ocean, seawards of our southern Cape coast, it is also likely that sea conditions could deteriorate beyond the ‘very rough’ category and into the ‘high’ seas category. In the case of the former, very rough seas are defined by total sea of 4 to 6 metres, whilst in the latter case, high sea conditions are defined by total seas of 6 to 9 metres. Ships (regardless of size) would be best advised (if possible) to modify their sailing schedule and to make every effort to avoid traversing the region between Cape Agulhas and Plettenberg Bay for the next 24 hours.

Snowfalls are expected to continue over the Western and Eastern Cape high ground, Lesotho mountains and southern high ground of the Northern Cape. By tomorrow, Tuesday 7 August 2012, further snowfalls are expected to spread into (all of) the Free State as well as the western and southern high ground of KwaZulu-Natal.

Very cold conditions are expected to persist today (Monday) over the southern high ground of the Northern Cape, high ground of the Western and Eastern Cape and southern parts of Free State. By tomorrow, the entire interior of South Africa (with the notable exception of Limpopo province) is expected to be very cold.

Heavy showers and thundershowers are expected at times along the southern coast and interior today, associated with an upper cut-off low that might result in a possible heavy rain along the coastal areas later today. By tomorrow, Tuesday, 7 August 2012, the cut-off low will migrate towards the south-eastern interior of the country, with associated deep convection (showers and thundershowers) over the eastern parts of the Eastern Cape. Tomorrow, the sustained ridging action of the surface high pressure system will continue feeding low level moisture into the south coast region, possibly resulting in further heavy rain in the morning over the Cape south coast and adjacent interior.

Figure 1: METEOSAT 9 Satellite image (Meteosat, “Day Natural” RGB at 10h15SAST). © EUMETSAT 2012.

By Wednesday, the SA Weather Service expects that the upper-air cut–off low will begin moving off the country towards the east, thus weakening the overall impact of extreme weather on South Africa by this time, when isolated to scattered showers are likely to be limited only to the south-eastern and eastern extremities of the country. On Wednesday, daytime temperatures are still likely to be cold over most parts of the country. The slow recovery of diurnal temperatures, day by day, will continue into the latter part of this week and the public can ultimately look forward to more mild, sunnier conditions being more prevalent across a large part of the country towards the coming weekend (11th and 12th August).

- SAWS

SAWDOS - Request for Media Interviews relating to the withdrawal of the SA Weather Service Amendment Bill, 2011

I received several requests from the International and Local media for personal interviews regarding the withdrawal of the  SA Weather Service Amendment Bill, 2011. However it is simply impossible to grant personal interviews to every media outlet that requested an interview.

I have indicated before that as a result of wide spread interest and to be transparent the SA Weather and Disaster Observation Service (SAWDOS) has decide to issue press releases instead of personal interviews.


SAWDOS MEDIA STATEMENT


WITHDRAWAL OF SA WEATHER SERVICE AMENDMENT BILL -  SEVERE WEATHER AND AIR POLLUTION-RELATED WARNING


31 JULY 2012

Business Day reports that the Department of Environmental Affairs has quietly withdrawn its proposed amendments to the SA Weather Service Amendment Bill, 2011.  Notice of the bill's withdrawal was given, without reasons, in a June 15 parliamentary notice.  There were no media or public announcements, but there is no obligation on a minister to make any public announcement when withdrawing a bill.

From the onset it was clear that this bill was a poorly drafted bill and unconstitutional.  This highly controversial bill sought to introduce fines of up to five years imprisonment or a fine of five million rand while repeat offenders could be jailed for up to ten years or pay a fine of ten million rand if weather and air pollution related information are issued without the SA Weather Service's permission; the supply of false or misleading weather information; and the supply of information that "detrimentally effects or is likely to detrimentally affect the weather service". It further sought that the SA Weather Service not be held liable for any damage, loss or injury caused by any act performed or omitted in good faith, in the course of exercising a power or performing a function assigned by or under this Act.

The above is just a few basic examples of the highly controversial and poorly drafted bill.

The SAWDOS expressed it's opinion regarding this bill on several occasions in the media. The SAWDOS's submission to the port folio committee is available HERE.

With regards to the withdrawal of the bill, the SAWDOS would like to make the following comments:

1. This country cannot afford to waste time and money on poor quality legislation. Most concerning and not mentioned anywhere is the fact the tax-payers money is wasted by this poorly drafted bill. The time wasted by the port folio committee, it's personnel and all those who submitted submissions, those who addressed the port folio committee at their own cost and all others involved wasted valuable time and money on debating this draconian bill. It really reflect the incompetence by those responsible for the drafting of the bill.

2. One would think that the Minister or a delegated official would announce the withdrawal of the amendment bill publically due to the vast public interest in the bill. It now seems that the quiet way out was chosen. The Department declined an invitation to comment. It would have been appropriate to at least release  a press statement to inform those concerned.

3. Although this bill is withdrawn it is not the end of the road. New legislation can be expected in future. Hopefully new legislation won't be draconian and at least worth the time and money spend on debating it. Time will tell if this will be the case.

4. The SAWDOS indicated in the past that it will continue to issue weather and disaster warnings, advisories and watches when threats are observed. The SAWDOS is of the opinion that it is the duty of citizens in this country to alert others if their is a life threatening situation developing or taking place in an area. One cannot waste time to first seek permission to issue such warnings, advisories or watches. By the time and if permission is granted many would have died in waiting for an answer. The SAWDOS have more than enough experience in not receiving answers from the SA Weather Service. Click HERE for more information.

5. I trust that Parliament will investigate the waste of the tax-payer money relating to this absurd legislation. The designated officials have to take responsibility for their actions and the waste of tax-payers money. Unfortunately SAWDOS is of the opinion that nothing will come of it and that it would just die a quiet death as was the case with the SA Weather Service Amendment Bill, 2011.

6. Finally: The SAWDOS would like to thank all those, but especially the media who contributed to "reverse" this draconian legislation. I am convinced that we all strive to make South Africa a safer place and to keep the public informed with regard to weather and disaster threats.

- END -

Johan Terblanche
Founder: SA Weather and Disaster Observation Service
Mossel Bay
31 July 2012

State cans penalising Weather Info Bill

The Department of Environmental Affairs has quietly withdrawn its proposed amendments to South Africa’s weather service legislation after they had drawn sharp criticism.

SUE BLAINE
Published: 2012/07/31 07:11:16 AM

THE Department of Environmental Affairs has quietly withdrawn its proposed amendments to SA’s weather service legislation after they had drawn sharp criticism, especially that they were unconstitutional.

The South African Weather Service Amendment Bill in January joined several other pieces of legislation criticised for poor drafting.

"We’re rather in the dark (over the bill’s withdrawal) … (and) our bigger concern is the scrutiny, by members of Parliament, of draft law. It does not appear to be what it should be," Johan Kruger, director of the FW de Klerk Foundation’s Centre for Constitutional Rights, said yesterday.

Notice of the bill’s withdrawal was given, without reasons, in a June 15 parliamentary notice. There were no media or public announcements, but there is no obligation on a minister to make any public announcement when withdrawing a bill.

The bill sought to introduce penalties for issuing weather or air pollution-related information without the weather service’s permission; the supply of false or misleading weather information; and the supply of information that "detrimentally affects or is likely to detrimentally affect the weather service".

Department of Environmental Affairs spokesman Albi Modise did not respond to queries yesterday.

National Assembly speaker Max Sisulu in May expressed concern over the "poor quality" of legislation emerging from the parliamentary process, much of which had to be returned to the National Assembly.

"The poor quality of legislation is often the consequence of inadequate scrutiny.…. As the subject matter of legislation becomes more sophisticated and highly technical, our parliament and members must become more professional," Mr Sisulu said in his budget vote address.

Democratic Alliance water and environmental affairs spokesman Gareth Morgan said the weather service bill "was certainly a highly controversial and poorly drafted bill, but the committee had set about redrafting it into an acceptable form".

"The minister will now have to redraft the bill and resubmit it to Parliament. I trust she will take into account the submissions ."

Mr Kruger said if the withdrawal led to a better drafted bill, this would "certainly be welcomed".

This sentiment was echoed by Melissa Fourie, director of the Centre for Environmental Rights : " We … welcome any attempt to improve the bill to be better aligned with the Air Quality Act and to recognise the important supportive role civil society plays in monitoring air quality."

The FW de Klerk Foundation made a submission to the parliamentary committee on water and environmental affairs in which it called for the scrapping of the penalty-inducing clause, because the constitution guaranteed freedom of expression.

However, aspects of the bill, such as air quality and climate change reporting mechanisms, were important if SA was to meet its international undertakings on gas emissions linked to the overall rise in global temperatures, Mr Morgan said.

- BusinessDay

SA National Severe Weather Warnings: 14 July 2012 04h00 SAST

Eastern Cape Province - Warning: Take action

Subject: Very cold conditions, snowfalls, heavy falls and very rough seas
Detail: Valid 13 to 14-07-2012: 1. Very cold, wet and windy conditions are expected over the interior, persisting until Sunday. 2. Snowfalls are expected over the high ground of the Eastern Cape. It will be heavy in places. 3. Heavy falls of rain are expected in places. 4. Very rough seas with waves heights in excess of 4m is expected between Plettenberg Bay and Port Alfred on Saturday.

Free State Province - Warning: Take action
Subject: Severe thunderstorms, very cold conditions
Detail: Valid: 13-07-2012 Watch: 1. Severe thunderstorms are possible in places. Valid: 14-07-2012 Warning: 1. Very cold conditions are expected.

Gauteng Province - Watch: Be prepared

Subject: Very cold conditions
Detail: Valid: 15-07-2012 1. Very cold conditions are expected over the southern parts.

Kwazulu Natal Province - Warning: Take action

Subject: Very cold
Detail: Valid: 14-07-2012 1. Very cold conditions are expected over the southwestern high ground.

North West Province - Watch: Be prepared

Subject: Severe thunderstorms
Detail: Valid: 13-07-2012 1. Severe thunderstorms are possible in places over the western and central parts.

Northern Cape Province - Warning: Take action

Subject: Very cold conditions and snowfalls
Detail: Valid 13 to 14-07-2012: 1. Very cold, wet and windy conditions are expected over the interior of the Northern Cape. 2. Snowfalls are expected over the southern high ground of the Northern Cape. It will be heavy in places.

Western Cape Province - Warning: Take action

Subject: Very cold, wet and windy, snowfalls, heavyfalls and very rough seas
Detail: Valid 12 to 14-07-2012: 1. Very cold, wet and windy conditions are expected over the interior, persisting until Sunday. 2. Snowfalls are expected over the central and eastern highground. It will be heavy in places. 3. Heavy falls of rain are expected in places in places over the Eden District. 4. Very rough seas with waves heights in excess of 4m is expected east of Mossel Bay.

All other Provinces - No warnings nor advisories in effect

Subject: No alerts.
Detail: No Alerts.

- SAWS

SAWDOS Notice: Readers, please note that the SAWDOS is not responsible for the contents or correctness of Severe Weather Warnings by the SA Weather Service. SAWDOS will not be held accountable for incorrect warnings nor for any grammar or spelling mistakes. The issue of severe weather warnings are the sole responsibility of the SA Weather Service.

SAWS: Heavy Thunderstorm Warning for Johannesburg - 1 July 2012 16h09 SAST

Yet again the SAWS has forecast a heavy thunderstorm at around 16h09 SAST for Johannesburg. With no cloud in sight this seems highly impossible.

Norwood Johannesburg 1 July 12. Another phantom storm for Johannesburg - this time the SAWS making sure it's a 'heavy'one. Laughable. Obs. Brett

SAWS Storm Warning for Johannesburg - 30 June 2012 15h00

30 June 12 Norwood : SAWS Warning for Johannesburg. Very odd – no sign of cloud near or far?? Obs. B & L Cohen

SAWDOS - Any thunderstorms in the Johannesburg area this afternoon?

UPDATE: 1 July 2012 - Thanks to all those who confirmed that there was no thunderstorm activity yesterday afternoon.  I just thought that my crystal ball is broken as I could not see any clouds over Gauteng yesterday afternoon.  Like somebody commented:   ..... only clouds over Johannesburg were clouds of smoke.  For more comments go to the SAWDOS Facebook Group.

South Africans left vulnerable before, during and after Severe Weather?

MEDIA RELEASE: -

Is this question relevant? The SAWDOS is of the opinion that South Africans are definitely left vulnerable before and during severe weather. After severe weather happened Disaster Management and others private organizations step in to alleviate the plight of those effected.

Yesterday afternoon two people died and several were injured as a result of severe weather in the Free State. The extent of the storm damage are still being assessed but from reports received houses, boats and a jetty were destroyed or damaged as a result of "tornadoes" moving through the Reitz, Bethlehem and Deneysville areas in the Free State.

The SA Weather Service issued several severe weather warnings on 22 June 2012 which were valid for 23 June 2012 up to 16h00. The SAWS warn of severe thunderstorms in the Eastern Cape, Gauteng, Free State and Kwazulu Natal. However no warning was issued for the period 16h00 to 24h00 on the 23 June 2012 during their afternoon updates. In other words no severe thunderstorm warnings were issued from 16h00 to 24h00. A critical flaw as severe thunderstorms were experienced in this period. One would have expected that they would have extended their severe weather warnings in yesterday afternoon's update.

Another most concerning factor that contribute to the vulnerability of South Africans before and during severe thunderstorms is the lack of detailed real time weather radar images. The SAWDOS raised this issue before in several posts and also wrote a letter to the SA Weather Service. Nearly 4 months later and we have still not received a reply from the SA Weather Service. The SAWDOS on many occasions in the past and present expressed it's concern and disappointment with the decision of the SA Weather Service to withdraw the availability of free static and detailed weather radar images to the general public. The SAWDOS is feeling so strongly about the fact that free detailed weather radar images must be available to the general public that it used several media platforms to express it's concern. Readers of the SAWDOS blog also responded and voiced their concern and dismay via email messages, while others commented via the media and social media.

Unfortunately the requests of the public has fallen on deaf ears. The SAWDOS still maintain that the SAWS has an obligation under the constitution of this country to make all weather information available free of charge to members of the public to keep them informed about impeding severe weather and storms. The current static storm map displayed on the SAWS web-site is inaccurate and respectfully serve no other purpose than to indicate that there is storm activity in a specific province.

Yesterday afternoon this storm map was down and did not display info. The SAWDOS has studied this map against real time storm observations and have come to the conclusion that there is nearly a 30 – 45 minute time difference in storm locations. In other words the storm map serves no purpose to warn the public of impeding storms and severe weather. The SAWS storm map does not reflect the intensity and real time position of storms making it a useless tool in the event of severe weather. 

The 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 tornadoes and still the people of this country have no free access to weather radars. Two people died yesterday.....how many more people must die just because they have no free access to weather radar images and weather information in this country? I do not have anything against the Government or the SAWS. Someone took a stupid genocide decision to let people pay for weather radar images and weather information.

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. The comments section on the web-site is a good reflection of the current unhappiness of the public in this regard. (Noted that some complaints by the public were removed for some reason.)

The SAWDOS can take the layback approach and watch from the sideline but who suffers the most during severe weather? The poorest of the poor and that is one of the reasons why the SAWDIS was established in 2008. The SAWDOS will always have compassion for the poorest of the poor as the founder of the SAWDOS grew up amongst the poorest of the poor in the former Transkei area. This is the reason why the SAWDOS associate with several relief organizations to assist the general public when severe weather or a disaster cause havoc and destruction. References of such events are to be found on the SAWDIS and SAWDOS Blogs in abundance.

Being a non profitable and free community based organization and the fact that all weather data must be freely available to any member of the public, the SAWDOS and the majority of citizens in South Africa is not willing to pay for radar images or any other weather data. A solution to solve the current unhappiness by members of the public would be to make detailed static weather radar images and other weather data freely available to the general public as was the case before April 2010.

The SAWDOS and the public of South Africa would like to once again request the SA Weather Service to re-consider their decision in forcing the public to pay for weather radar information and other weather information and data. We respectfully request that free detailed weather radar images and critical weather information and data be made available to the general public free of any charges.

The SAWDOS hereby plea to politicians and parliamentarians on behalf of the general public to investigate the lack of free detailed radar images in South Africa. How many more people must die? We know that there will be deaths during severe weather but lives can be saved by making free detailed radar images available to the general public.

The current lack of detailed free weather radar images leave the public most vulnerable before and during severe thunderstorms in South Africa.

Johan Terblanche
Founder: SA Weather and Disaster Observation Service
Mossel Bay
24 June 2012