Disaster Risk Reduction Day: Tahmo weather station launched in Johannesburg, South Africa
On 13 October, International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction, council member Michael Sun for public safety, officially commissioned a Tahmo weather station in Johannesburg, South Africa.
The weather station is used for the forecasting of floods and the management of the water demand. Council member Sun (right) cut the ribbon of the new station in the township on Alexandra, together with Marieke de Groen of AquaLinks who represents Tahmo in South Africa.
Tahmo weather station in township Alexandra, Johannesburg.
Network of African weather stations
Trans-African Hydro-Meteorological Observatory (Tahmo) is a Dutch-based organisation that is specialised in developing a robust network of 20,000 automatic weather stations (AWS) across Africa.
All Tahmo installed stations deliver data every hour to the sponsor of the station and to the South African Weather Service.
The data will be made freely available for research and for other good causes.
The first Tahmo station in South Africa was opened on top of the Maths Centre in Johannesburg on 14 July.
For proof-of-the-concept in Johannes, Tahmo hopes to have an additional ten stations operational soon.
Traditional weather parameters
The Tahmo weather station - produced by the Meter Group (formerly Decagon) - is resilient, requires little maintenance, and is cost effective. It measures traditional weather parameters, like air temperature, relative humidity, or solar radiation.
Tahmo already has stations operational in Kenya, Ghana, Benin, Togo, Mali, Burkina Faso, Uganda, Ethiopia, Malawi (in order of implementation).
In August, the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Tahmo, to develop a network of Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) across the country.
Read also on this website
● Tahmo and MetaMeta selected to further develop their solutions on rainwater prediction and road water harvesting, 23 February 2015
● Stockholm Water Week 2014: Seven Dutch winners in cutting edge technology challenge on water and food, 3 September 2014
● Expertise: Smart information solutions
● Country: South Africa
More information
Aqualinks
Johannesburg, South Africa
+27 82 536 3068
www.aqualinks.co.za
TAHMO
Delft, the Netherlands
www.tahmo.org
Short movie explaining the Tahmo initiative for 20,000 automatic weather stations in Africa.