South African Extreme Weather Event Records, 1900-2022

The South African Extreme Weather Event Records, 1900-2022, compiles data on the occurrences of extreme weather events in the district municipalities of the country from 1900 to 2022. This information is derived from the Caelum dataset, sourced from the South African Weather Service (SAWS). The dataset obtained includes 6644 records dating as far back as 1647 and the most recent recorded event is from 30 December 2022. However, for this dataset, the analysis focused on data from 1900 to 2022, encompassing 6548 records. The dataset encompasses a variety of weather events, with no specific categorisation. However, for this dataset, only events listed as droughts, extreme heat, extreme cold, heatwaves, and wildfires were extracted and categorised accordingly. The dataset further presents the aggregated total of all extreme weather events (inclusive of all events recorded in the Caelum dataset) per district municipality (DM), providing an overview of the cumulative occurrences in each region. The dataset is structured within an Excel spreadsheet, where the district municipalities serve as the row inputs, and the distinct weather categories are delineated across the columns. This dataset was then utilised for the development of the South African Extreme Weather Events, 1900-2022 dashboard, accessible at https://nrf-saeon.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=d4042b54617b4335ae89ba99d8320d7d. The Caelum dataset provides event data in point locations. To display this information as polygon features aligned with District Municipality (DM) boundaries, a spatial join operation was performed. This operation, conducted as a one-to-many process, attributed each point located within a polygon to that specific polygon. This resulted in the aggregation of event occurrences per DM for each of the specified categories mentioned above.