uMngeni Resilience Project installs unique lightning warning system at Swayimane High School

Staff from the School of Agricultural, Earth and Environmental Sciences (SAEES) visited Swayimane High School to meet with high school staff and explain a new state-of-the-art system installed to warn the school and surrounding community about lightning strikes in the area.

The Campbell Scientific system is the first of its kind to be installed at a high school in South Africa, and continuously measures both atmospheric electric charge build-up and from the occurrence of lightning strikes, sending data to an online repository at UKZN that displays the data and updates in real-time.

The system includes three lights installed at the high school: red, orange and blue. The blue light flashes when the system shows an all-clear, the orange light flashes when a strike is detected within a 32-kilometre radius, or the atmospheric electric field reaches a threshold of 1000 V m-1. The red light flashes when there is a strike within 16km or the atmospheric electric field reaches a threshold of 2000 V m-1. A siren accompanying the red light alerts those nearby to seek shelter indoors. The siren will be activated briefly every 10 minutes for the duration of nearby strikes; when activated, e-mails can also be sent to teachers and community leaders.

The installation of this system is part of the uMngeni Resilience Project (URP), led by the uMgungundlovu District Municipality with support from the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI), in partnership with the Department of Environmental Affairs. The URP aims to increase resilience of vulnerable communities through interventions such as early warning systems, climate-smart agriculture and climate proofing settlements.

Lightning is one risk to people's lives, crops and herds in the Swayimane area with its extreme weather and mountainous terrain.

'Extreme events will become more intense and more frequent with climate change,' said Dr Alistair Clulow when addressing the teachers. He explained the need to measure weather patterns to better understand and prepare for the future, saying that climate change is likely to result in more severe storms, flooding and lightning.

Clulow gave tips on avoiding lightning strikes, and said researchers will work with the school on a response protocol.

The URP became involved with Swayimane High School from 2016 through the installation of an Agrometeorological Instrumentation Mast (AIM) system that measures and collects real-time data about various parameters such as air temperature, rainfall, leaf wetness, soil water content, relative humidity and more. The data is transmitted to a UKZN server and published to a Web site where it can be viewed in real time or downloaded; this site is visible on a smart television screen installed by the URP at the school, and is accessible for teaching purposes on computers donated to the school by the URP. The school is also home to crop trials and a research tunnel in use by UKZN postgraduate students, led by Technical Co-ordinator Dr Tafadzwa Mabhaudhi.

Researchers involved hope this pilot lightning warning system will be rolled out to other schools involved in the URP project.