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From perfecting the art of rainmaking, to cutting the umbilical cord to Government, it's been an eventful year for the Weather Bureau.

By the middle of 2001, the SA Weather Bureau will become a public entity, joining SA National Parks, National Botanical Institute and SA Tourism as a Government agent (parastatal) under DEAT. It will change its name to the SA Weather Service, a government agent better geared to deliver a service that puts South Africa's people first.

Much of the year was spent in consultation with various bodies about agentisation and transformation of the SAWB. Employees were understandably nervous about how agentisation would affect job security, and there was a fear of retrenchment that has now been allayed.

Also of concern was that agentisation could undermine the importance of a transformed weather service that was representative of South African demographics. Financial systems, marketing and human resources were prepared for the organisation to become a commercialised public entity.

After interactions with various stakeholders including the Portfolio Committee, staff members, etc., a bill that lays the basis of an agentised weather service, set to meet clearly defined transformation targets, was passed by the National Assembly in March 2001.

FORECASTING

Aviation. The Weather Office at Johannesburg International Airport was upgraded to Aviation Weather Centre during the past year.

The Centre has reached agreement with the aviation industry on charges, and how these will be recovered.

A major positive spin-off of these negotiations has been the formation of ACAMS (Advisory Committee for Aeronautical Meteorological Services), which will advise the Aviation Weather Services on its needs.

The lack of upper-air observational data over Africa is a big problem, as it is crucial for aviation weather prediction. In 1998, the Aircraft Meteorological Data Relay (AMDAR) panel was set in motion to investigate the possibilities of using information routinely collected by aircraft, especially during ascents and descents, for this purpose.

A pilot project, involving SAA, British Airways, KLM, Lufthansa and Air Namibia was initiated, with South Africa leading the project. It promises to be very successful, and gives good region-wide information, alleviating to some extent the urgent need for more weather balloon ascents.

Marine. When the ore carrier Treasure sank in Table Bay on 26 June 2000, insurers asked SAWB marine forecasters to track the weather conditions the ship would have sailed through on the way from Brazil to South Africa.

The salvors responsible for cleaning the remaining bunker oil from the sunken vessel used marine forecasts to safely complete their work, as did the CSIR for input into their oil trajectory prediction model.

Bunker oil is a particularly difficult, heavy and toxic substance. It has a low viscosity, clinging to marine animals and beaches, and does not evaporate. The marine forecasters' work, while not specifically intended to help save the endangered African penguins, did aid conservationists in evacuating the penguins from the path of the oil slick.

General Forecasting. The main weather event of the year was once again February's Mozambican floods. Due to a breakdown of weather forecasting services in neighbouring countries, the Weather Bureau was called upon to provide weather forecasts for Mozambique.

These were distributed to relief agencies via e-mail and the Internet on the SAWB website and a special website set up by the US National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration.

Establishing the programme was relatively easy because there was already a severe weather watch and disaster management programme in place.

Unfortunately, the Department continued to operate with a distinct shortage of forecasting personnel, which makes past successes all the more notable.

Severe Weather Watch. This programme proved its worth several times during the last year, and it's becoming increasingly accepted that timely warnings can be issued. The Weather Bureau warned of heavy rain on 16 and 21 June 2000 over the north-eastern part of the country, and simultaneously, of snow on the southern Lesotho part of the Drakensberg.

The same applied to cold, snow and heavy rain on 18 and 19 September 2000 over the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal.

The Weather Bureau also forecast heavy rain over the KwaZulu-Natal coast in November.

These set new rainfall records, and were described as the worst downfalls since the tropical cyclone Demoina.

A 45-minute severe thunderstorm warning was issued by the Port Elizabeth office before it broke over the Bedford/Adelaide/Fort Beaufort areas of the Eastern Cape on 3 November.

Golf ball-sized hail, rain and strong winds caused damages in excess of R5 million to citrus crops.

The Telephonic Weather Information Service provides recorded forecasts and warnings to the public. There are plans to expand this service to rural communities through the use of Spaza telephones.

We have also introduced a short message service (SMS).

RESEARCH AND TRAINING

This international programme investigates the sources, sinks and transport of natural and man-made atmospheric trace gases and particulates, as well as their impacts on humans and nature in the sub-region.

NASA employed three specialised aircraft, including the ER2 (previously the U2 spy-plane).The UK Meteorological Office provided a WC-130 Hercules, and South Africa, supported by the Max Planck Institute, two Aero Commander 690s.

Several South African universities were involved, as well as Eskom, the National Botanical Institute, and CSIR's Environmentek.

Of particular importance to South Africa and the region is the Aerosol Recirculation and Rainfall Experiment. This looks at the effect of air pollution on rain. Do the pollution particles in the atmosphere encourage rain or inhibit it? There are no clear answers yet.

Research Group on Seasonal Climate Studies. The RGSCS has planned capacity building exercises to focus on genuine services delivery to disadvantaged communities, particularly weather information to small-scale, subsistence farmers.

The Group has sought partners with counterparts in the Department of Agriculture and the Agricultural Research Council.

Forecaster Training. A Weather Bureau bursary student and one from Lesotho are doing a course in Atmospheric Sciences (Weather Forecasting) which started in the second half of 1999.

Four South African students who repeated a course in Specialised Forecasting were employed by the Weather Bureau.

As far as experiential training is concerned, five learners have completed their first course at the Irene Weather Office, and four the second semester.

WEATHER OBSERVATIONS AND NETWORKS

The Weather Bureau continued to maintain a comprehensive observational network. Upper-air ascents were scaled down to Cape Town, Irene and the two remote island stations Marion and Gough. No optical theodolite upper-air wind measurement ascents are currently being done at any weather offices.

WEATHER TOURISM AND EDUCATION

Weather is an ideal subject for education. It brings together Mathematics, Geography, Science, Biology and Languages.

The number of learners visiting the Irene Weather Office has increased so much that bookings have to be made well in advance. Staff show visiting groups around and demonstrate meteorological activities, including the release of a weather balloon.

The Library at the Weather Bureau is a further useful resource for schools and learners.

The Weather Bureau also made an important contribution to education and awareness this year, with the launch of the Weather Bureau's activity unit for Grades One and Two. The unit for Grade Three should be ready in 2002. The Bureau also participated in the Sasol SciFest in Grahamstown.

METEOROLOGICAL SYSTEMS

The National Weather Radar Network was expanded to the Northern Province through cooperation between the Weather Bureau, Water Affairs and Forestry, and the Water Research Commission who all contributed towards refurbishing a mothballed weather radar and installing it at Pietersburg International Airport.

Rainmaking. Cloud-seeding activities for rainfall enhancement continued in the Northern Province during the period October to December 2000 as part of the South African Rainfall Enhancement Programme.

The South African studies are now being wrapped up, but this technology is continuing to receive world-wide attention and several initiatives are underway to promote international co-operation on the project.

SUPPLYING INFORMATION

The number of climate enquiries increased by 11% in 2000, compared to 1999 figures, and many film and television production houses filmed footage at the Weather Bureau for use in programmes relating to the flooding.

The topic most enquired about was lightning.

In 2000, the requests for lightning information leapt to almost 90% of the legal and insurance requests. This was quite problematic.

Up until the middle of 1999, the Weather Bureau was able to use the lightning detection network operated by Eskom.

Since the demise of this system, answering lightning enquiries has become laborious and time consuming because at least four synoptic charts a day have to be consulted.

The Weather Bureau Library continued to provide a service to scientists, researchers, students and learners.

By December 2000, it had in stock 4 299 books, 277 current journal titles, 6 292 bound serials and 52 CD-Rom titles.

Data communication lines to most of our neighbouring countries have been upgraded to TCP/IP protocol, which means they can more easily receive the Bureau's digital forecasting products.

The Weather Bureau Web (www.sawb.gov.za) was upgraded to handle increased requests from the public.

In July 2000, the Information Office, Climate Monitoring System and the Publications office moved over to a Cointel system for all incoming calls.

• For weather enquiries, the numbers to call are (082) 162, or (082) 233-8484.