A mission in weather

Someset West weatherman Dudley Rowswell shares his journey with Bolander readers...

My life has been a tapestry in the workings and measurement of weather, (Meteorology – the science of weather) from my school days to my present retirement days.

When I was in matric at Hottentots Holland High School, my geography teacher, Klippies van der Spuy, instilled in me the love of weather.

I built a weather station at home and applied to join the South African Weather Bureau, where I started at (then) DF Malan Airport in 1971. It was then my adventure started.

I applied to go to Gough Island as a weather observer. While waiting for a response, I did a month stint on the Weather Ship, sending up weather balloons and doing observations, the FH Hughes.

After tests, medical and psychological, I was accepted and was off to Gough Island, then SANAE (Antarctica), and lastly on Marion Island for 14 months in the relief team at each.

It was a memorable experience which I still treasure today and share the opportunity I had.

My studies came next, then I got married and worked at different weather offices throughout the country until my mother-in-law said; ”Why don’t you come back to the Cape?”.

I applied to get a transfer to Agro meteorology at Stellenbosch as shift work was not a future idea. I ended in a little Karoo town with a huge agricultural college with an Agromet office close by, Middelburg.

I developed agricultural skills with my weather knowledge and took over an angora forecasting project where I collaborated with the Weather Bureau and the angora famers of the Eastern Cape to initiate specialised forecasting information for the angora industry.

I then transferred to Dohne Agricultural Institute at Stutterheim where I became an advisor for the pineapple, wheat and stock industries.

It was here where I started a column on the weather for the local Round Table “What’s New” which was well received by researchers and the public.

From 1994 I was approached to start a weather station network in the Transkei and Ciskei homelands.

This was a challenge to go to communities to be a “missionary” for weather stations to these people who had no idea of what a weather station was all about or how important they are for future agricultural planning.

A generator, an overhead projector and transparencies in those days were needed to get a story across, to stress the needs to develop these areas for the long term needs for food.

I asked for a transfer to Stellenbosch when a vacancy arose there, and my mother-in-law’s wish was granted...

With the modern technology growing so quickly, I was able to do the Dohne article and a local Stellenbosch weather bulletin for the researchers and interested people in the Cape.

This grew and with a comparison climate comparison to the long term average I was able to get a meaningful spreadsheet out once a month for each province using a weather station with a 30-year averages.

This proved a valuable tool in agriculture.

I retired in 2016 with 45 years of weather in my veins, and still produce the weather bulletin twice a week from anywhere in the world, and also do a WhatsApp group with the latest rainfall measured at my residence, including weather warnings and the moon and tidal affects.

I truly love the weather and all the effects it has on us, it is in my veins. Respect the weather and its natural forces.