Perched 3 100 metres above sea level on the Mont-aux-Sources plateau above the Drakensberg’s iconic amphitheatre in the Maloti-Drakensberg, the new automatic station will deliver real-time data from an environment of exceptional biodiversity and hydrological significance.
A team of scientists have installed the highest weather station in Southern Africa, anchoring a major step forward for climate and ecosystem research in one of the region’s most important mountain landscapes.
Perched 3 100 metres above sea level on the Mont-aux-Sources plateau above the Drakensberg’s iconic amphitheatre in the Maloti-Drakensberg, the new automatic station will deliver real-time data from an environment of exceptional biodiversity and hydrological significance.
The initiative is jointly implemented through NRF-South African Environmental Observation Network (NRF-Saeon), in collaboration with the Expanded Freshwater and Terrestrial Environmental Observation Network (Efteon), the NRF-Saeon Grasslands Node and the Afromane Research Unit at the University of the Free State.
The high-altitude site forms part of a growing advanced research network across the northern Drakensberg.
The station captures a suite of climate variables — temperature, humidity, wind, solar radiation, rainfall and barometric pressure — measurements that the scientists said are essential for tracking climate change, extreme weather and catchment health.
The weather station has been installed on the Mont-aux-Sources plateau in the Maloti-Drakensberg, right at the headwaters of the Tugela and Elands River, said Kathleen Smart, a biogeochemist and the manager of Efteon Northern Drakensberg.
“This is a strategic addition to a growing environmental observation network in one of South Africa’s most important and most vulnerable strategic water source areas,” Smart said.
Strategic water source areas cover only about 8% of the country, but supply 50% of the water in its rivers and the dams.
“The northern Drakensberg is one of the most critical of these areas. The region alone feeds the Vaal, the Orange, the Caledon and the Tugela systems. It supplies water to four provinces, including up to 30% of Gauteng’s demand,” said Smart.
“But importantly, those steep montane grasslands act like massive sponges, absorbing and slowly releasing water that supports many rural households, subsistence farmers, commercial agriculture, tourist economies and the cities immediately downstream of the weather station.”
These continuous measurements are essential for tracking climate change, extreme weather and catchment health in real time, she said, noting that the information will be openly available to researchers, land managers, hikers, tourism operators and “anybody who is interested in the dynamics of this really remarkable landscape”.
Live data and downloadable datasets will be made available through the NRF-Saeon live weather platform.
The installation crowns years of collaboration between NRF-Saeon and the Afromontane Research Unit.
“It opens a window into the environmental processes that shape mountain ecosystems, which are vital for water security and biodiversity,” the unit’s director, Ralph Clark, said.
It is one of five stations positioned along an altitudinal gradient stretching from the university’s Qwaqwa campus, up through Witsieshoek Mountain Lodge, to the alpine zone of the Maloti-Drakensberg escarpment.
The network complements the Mount-Aux-Sources Long-Term Socio-Ecological Research Platform (MaS-LTSER) — the only cross-border, mountain-focused LTSER platform in Africa — which continuously monitors streamflow and wetland water content. The area also hosts the highest research accommodation facility on the continent.
Johan van Tol, who leads the MaS-LTSER initiative, said Efteon’s chief instrument technician, Abri de Buys and northern Drakensberg instrument technician Jeremy Moonsamy spearheaded the installation.
“This region supports the livelihoods of many people in the Free State, KwaZulu-Natal and Lesotho, many of whom depend heavily on the availability and quality of ecosystem services derived from these mountainous landscapes,” Van Tol said, noting that nationally, it includes areas of significant agricultural importance.
Moonsamy emphasised the site’s strategic value, noting that it is the source of several major rivers in South Africa, including the Orange, Tugela, and Vaal systems.
He said it was vital to monitor and understand the conditions and processes driving change in this region, including climate change, land-use and land-management impacts, and atmospheric pollution.
According to Smart, the installation aligns with the work of a growing community forum called the Northern Drakensberg Collaborative, a partnership that brings together communities, traditional leadership, NGOs, researchers, farmers and the government to address issues including water insecurity, land degradation and the unequal access to resources in the upper Tugela.
The collaborative’s strength lies in shared knowledge and co-learning, and “this station directly supports that mandate by improving environmental transparency across the catchment”, she added.
Expanding monitoring into high-altitude terrain helps close a major gap in South Africa’s weather network, De Buys said.
“Most of the weather networks in South Africa tend to be located in lower-lying areas where most of the human activity is. There’s a shortage of information from our high mountainous areas — the area that NRF-Saeon is slowly moving into.”