VUT Weather Station

For the past year, the Civil Engineering Department has been working tirelessly to ensure the installation of the weather station project. The tender to install the weather station at VUT was awarded to the South African Weather Services (SAWS) and the site was officially handed over to SAWS in April 2011.

The SAWS has been working closely with the Civil Engineering Department in identifying the suitable site, finding the correct fencing for the enclosure to ensure security, providing electricity on the site and ensuring data transmission from the sensors in the weather station to the computer that is located at the Water Engineering Laboratory (R011) in the Civil Engineering Department.

Three technical staff members in the Civil Engineering Department have undergone training in maintenance of the weather station and data analysis. The station will benefit VUT in terms of providing a platform for post-graduate students to undertake research studies in the field of hydrology; provide VUT community with accurate weather and climate conditions. The Civil Engineering Department is considering selling data to the Health Department, municipalities and some Insurance companies for the Risk and Disaster Management.  Discussions are underway with the VUT IT Department to have the weather information circulated to the VUT Community.

Wind sensor which reads the wind and speed direction