Ermelo Weather Station started with humble beginnings Driving towards the eastern section of town, standing tall with an air of supremacy visible for miles, stands the Dome from the local weather station, situated at the airfield. As with all successful, meaningful and interesting stories, there has to be a beginning. The beginning of the first weather station in Ermelo started in October 1988 with a man by the name of Mr Kenneth Short. Mr Short, a senior meteorological technician, stationed at the weather Station in Bethlehem in the Free State, received a request from Pretoria Weather Service Assistant Director, Mr Piet Le Roux, to head the project of erecting a weather radar and weather station in Ermelo. However great the honour of being entrusted with such a great task was, it was also a very challenging project as there were many obstacles to bridge. There was no building structure to speak of which would suffice as an office and so the very first weather station office consisted of a small caravan and the radar trailer. Then there was the gruelling task of erecting a fenced instrument camp with a cemented foundation with no running water on hand. Telephone wire installation had to be requested for the data processing and sending. With the help of his family and young men from the local church he attended, Mr Short began the process of adding to Ermelo’s history and by mid-October 1988, Ermelo’s very first weather reading was taken and sent to Pretoria. For the next seven year the Ermelo Weather Station comprised of the fenced off instrument camp, radar trailer and a caravan. In 1995, the Dome as it is called was erected along with a building comprising of all the necessary facilities to accommodate the ever evolving and upgraded technology needed for meteorological purposes as well as facilities for the flight club along with the airfield landing strip. The purpose of the dome is a modernised version of the radar. Inside the dome is a huge 8meter in diameter dish which transmits and receives radio waves, which in turn indicates water droplets intensity. This happens by the radio waves bouncing against water droplets accumulated in the clouds and depending on the strength of signal, reflects back. This then indicates the intensity and amount of water droplets in the clouds equated to rainfall, for example a higher intensity equals more chance of hail. With the ever changing technology, the huge dome which is seen today at the Weather Station was erected in 2010. Although technology has advanced dramatically over the past 26 years, much of the equipment and instruments have remained the same but with new and improved additions, ensuring better readings. Instruments such as the Baro Graph which measures the change in air pressure and the Thermo Hydro Graph, which measures temperature and humidity, now operate as electronic devices. Even with technology advancing almost daily, the weather service still makes use of the ‘good old’ weather balloon, which is fitted with an instrument package measuring temperature, air pressure and humidly, these weather balloons are utilised in larger district areas. Mr Short manned the Ermelo weather station alone for approximately three years before he was joined by another meteorological technician, Mr Wayne Smith. Today there are four meteorological technicians stationed at this weather station.
Posted on: Fri, 25 Jul 2014 06:27:10 +0000
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