Climate Dataset for South Africa by the Agricultural Research Council

Long-term, reliable, continuous and real-time weather and climatic data are essential for efficient management and sustainable use of natural resources. This paper describes the weather station network (WSN) of the Agricultural Research Council (ARC) of South Africa, including information on instrumentation, data retrieval and processing protocols, calibration and maintenance protocols, as well as applications of the collected data. To this end, the WSN of the ARC consists of over 600 automatic weather stations that are distributed across the country to cover a wide range of agro-climatic zones. At each weather station, air temperature, rainfall, relative humidity, solar irradiance, wind speed and direction are monitored and archived on an hourly basis. The main objective of this WSN is to archive climate information for South Africa as well as supply the agricultural community with weather data to support decision-making.

[1]  L. Myeni,et al.  Development and validation of an operational multi-layered model for estimation of soil moisture at point-scale in South Africa , 2022, South African Journal of Plant and Soil.

[2]  K. Shale,et al.  Impacts of Rainfall and Temperature Changes on Smallholder Agriculture in the Limpopo Province, South Africa , 2021, Water.

[3]  M. Moeletsi,et al.  Development and analysis of a long-term soil moisture data set in three different agroclimatic zones of South Africa , 2021 .

[4]  S. Walker.  Value‐added weather advisories for small‐scale farmers in South Africa delivered via mobile apps* , 2020, Irrigation and Drainage.

[5]  M. Moeletsi,et al.  Assessment of three models for estimating daily net radiation in southern Africa , 2020 .

[6]  Mphethe I. Tongwane,et al.  Evaluation of Infilling Methods for Time Series of Daily Temperature Data: Case Study of Limpopo Province, South Africa , 2019, Climate.

[7]  L. Myeni,et al.  Present status of soil moisture estimation over the African continent , 2019, Journal of Hydrology: Regional Studies.

[8]  L. Nhamo,et al.  Preparedness or repeated short-term relief aid? Building drought resilience through early warning in southern Africa , 2019, Water SA.

[9]  M. Jury.  Climate trends across South Africa since 1980 , 2018 .

[10]  Michael J. Savage,et al.  Seasonal variation of reference evapotranspiration and Priestley-Taylor coefficient in the eastern Free State, South Africa , 2017 .

[11]  L. Dyson,et al.  A snow forecasting decision tree for significant snowfall over the interior of South Africa , 2016 .

[12]  S. Walker,et al.  Evaluation of an inverse distance weighting method for patching daily and dekadal rainfall over the Free State Province, South Africa , 2016 .

[13]  A. Musyoki,et al.  The impact of and responses to flooding in Thulamela Municipality, Limpopo Province, South Africa , 2016, Jamba.

[14]  M. Tadross,et al.  Crop model usefulness in drylands of southern Africa: an application of DSSAT , 2015 .

[15]  Gina Ziervogel,et al.  Climate change impacts and adaptation in South Africa , 2014 .

[16]  M. Tsubo,et al.  Development of an agroclimatological risk tool for dryland maize production in the Free State Province of South Africa , 2013 .

[17]  W. Landman,et al.  A short-range weather prediction system for South Africa based on a multi-model approach , 2012 .

[18]  W. Landman,et al.  Tropical systems from the southwest Indian Ocean making landfall over the Limpopo River Basin, southern Africa: a historical perspective , 2012 .

[19]  R. Bugan,et al.  The water balance of a seasonal stream in the semi-arid Western Cape (South Africa) , 2012 .

[20]  C. Ringler,et al.  Adaptation to climate change in Ethiopia and South Africa: options and constraints. , 2009 .

[21]  Mphethe I. Tongwane,et al.  Spatiotemporal Variation of Frost within Growing Periods , 2017 .

[22]  S. Walker,et al.  Farmers' perceptions of adaptation to climate change and water stress in a South African rural community , 2013 .

[23]  W. Landman,et al.  ENSO and implications on rainfall characteristics with reference to maize production in the Free State Province of South Africa , 2011 .