Gauteng Smallholder Dec 2016 / Jan 2017 | Page 20

CHRISTMAS Gift ideas for maplotters forecast what's likely to happen weatherwise, often by no more a scientific method that gazing into the sky to catch glimpses of cloud any smallholders build-up on the horizon. have a rain gauge If you would like to do in their gardens, something a little more and some keep comprehenscientific, and have a handle sive records of rainfall on their on more environmental plots. Others, a bit more factors on your land, such as ambitious perhaps, attempt to Home weather station M relative humidity, barometric pressure, wind director and speed, and maximum and minimum temperatures ~ and have all this (and more) information readily available on your computer, a battery (or mains) ECO2950 home weather station powered personal weather station from Eco Concept of Pretoria East, the ECO2950, should be on your shopping list this Christmas. The device comprises two parts which connect wirelessly over a maximum distance of 100m. One is mounted outside and does the gathering of information, including rainfall, wind direction and wind speed while the other is a digital receiver, processor and display of the information collected. The latter can also automatically upload your data to your computer or, better still, to a network of all users of similar devices in your area to give a more comprehensive picture of weather conditions. To view this information, and see the weather history recorded by these devices around Gauteng, go to www.wunderground.com. Being electronic, it enables much more data to be collected conveniently through the day. Thus, while a conventional rain gauge simply catches the rainfall and gives you a total until you empty it, this device measures individual rainfall events, recording the amount for individual showers. And using all the information at its disposal, the device is able to make simple weather Continued on page 19 facebook.com/gautengsmallholder 18 www.sasmallholder.co.za