Kobus Botha: the weather prophet

AFRICA’S weather wizard, Professor Kobus Botha, was in Windhoek this week to offer his Namibian fans insight into the world of weather and the record rain that fell across the country this year.

The professor’s website, www.weatherphotos.co.za, hosts unique satellite images and contains a string of weather information to which not only farmers in Africa, but hundreds of thousands of people across the globe have become addicted to.Botha said yesterday that on average the site attracts 160 000 hits a day, with a record number of hits, 800 000, recorded in one day in 2010. In 2010, the website was visited by a 25 and a half million people. So far this year, his website has attracted more than 14 million visitors.Botha, who labels his weather obsession as a ‘hobby’, began dabbling with satellite images almost 20 years ago. For the past six years, however, his website has grown from strength to strength. The major attraction of the website, is his sole access to a number of unique satellite images, which are only available on his website and nowhere else.He generously shares his time and expertise with thousands of people, either via the website, the phone or e-mail, but he keeps the software technology he has developed over the years to process the images close to his heart.’Every time you open the website, you are seeing unique photos.’ The satellite images update automatically 87 times per day – one of the various software tricks he has created.’Weather is my passion. I treat this website like a baby.’Botha says his passion was born at a young age, when his father, a grape farmer, checked the barometer every morning.’I know drought. I know hail. I have knowledge on all sorts of weather.’And to answer the biggest question that was on everyone’s lips yesterday after the presentation: ‘There is no more expectation of rain, no great indications of rain. It is now over. That tap has been closed.’The professor emphasised that although the rainy season is officially over, this does not exclude the possibility of a few more scattered thundershowers.Botha added that his weather models indicate that Namibia can expect a normal winter, not much colder than previous years.The presence of the La Niña phenomenon this year, which is believed to have played a decisive role in shifting high-pressure systems and thereby ensuring that Namibia received abnormally high rainfall this year, will not have an effect on winter, though it has kept the rain clouds over the country for longer.But now, Botha explained, La Niña is subsiding.As for next year, Botha refuses to make predictions, or link this year’s rain to a global shift in weather patterns.’We play with a thing we understand very little of. Weather is a mighty system of which we know only a few things’.Botha’s central message at the presentation yesterday was the fact that predicting weather remains a hit-and-miss business.He warned farmers attending the Agra-sponsored event that they should ‘never accept weather forecasts as the only criteria on which to base agriculture decisions’.The professor said by sharing his knowledge with people, it is important for him to point out that no matter how many tools have evolved to keep an eye on weather, or how sophisticated they have become, ‘if we talk about the weather, one has to realise that it is one of the most difficult aspects of nature. Weather is unpredictable. So do not blame people if their forecasts are not always spot on. There are so many aspects we still do not understand’.He said the weather cycle requires’an enormous amount of energy’ and can thus be influenced on number of levels which people don’t understand yet.His humble attitude towards weather aside, Botha admits that he fields hundreds of calls every month from people who expect him to tell them when he thinks would be the best time for children’s birthday parties, funerals or weddings.But, for the professor, silly questions do not dampen his passion or his drive to try and understand the weather. This year, his website has undergone a number of significant improvements, and his family have become involved extensively.His home in Pretoria, which houses the computer data room that directly downloads images sent to the two satellite dishes positioned in his backyard, will remain his ‘hobbies’ domain.And it is here, where his biggest fans, many of whom are Namibians, can reach the professor at all times of the day, as he continues to download, upload and tries to answer each and every weather query coming his way.- jana@namibian.com.na

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