For those who have forgotten or new people who don't know yet, the Dunnottar
weather station is functioning very well.

It is open to all (the public), and has a wealth of information. One can
also access past reports.

The website is www.iweathar.co.za and click on the live stations, from where
you choose the station you want to check. There are a number of them around
the country that will give you the weather conditions for the past few
minutes, as well as the trend over the past 12 hours. Summaries appear on
the list page, while one can see the individual graphs after clicking on the
station name (in kph) (one can choose to see it in kilometers or knots or
miles per hour by clicking on that speed in the summary).

To get to the REPORTS, go back to the iWeathar home page (notice spelling).
On the top of the page at Client Service area under Email type in "xntrix".
In the password area type in "xntrix" again. That will bring up the section
for the Dunnottar weather station. Click on Reports, and then choose what
you want to see as well as what date(s) you want to see (remember year has
changed!). Click Go and scroll down to see the graphs.

For example: Saturday evening (3 Jan) we had a gust front at around 20h30pm
with the wind picking up to 67kph. Strong but nothing like we had on the 2nd
January when most of us sitting at home became aware of an extremely strong
gust front which hit almost 100kph and was spread over most of JHB. At the
same time it started raining at Dunnottar and it had almost 18mm in approx
one hour - it did not rain to the same extent at other places. Some of our
members had some wind damage from this blast such as perimeter walls blowing
over or carport roofs going for a flight, not to mention trees being
uprooted.

On 6 December the gust front (61kph) and the rain arrived together and the
field was awash with about 30mm of water falling in less than an hour - we
were there at the time and it was VERY wet with quite big hail stones
battering the gazebo!

It is most interesting to see the drop in temperature, the swing in wind
direction, and the rainfall (if any) when a gust front hits. The barograph
(QNH) also usually shows a pressure drop before rain.

It is interesting to compare Hartebeespoort Dam station to Dunnottar, though
Harties doesn't give as much detail as Dunnottar, and the public cannot
access the reports.