Twenty-seven years ago Nigel Campbell’s mother-in-law gifted him a rain gauge for Christmas.
As a master mariner whose profession requires a qualification in meteorology, he is naturally attracted to such devices and it went down a treat.
Recording and comparing rainfall figures became part of Nigel’s daily routine from that point onwards.
Now, almost three decades later, many of the residents at Sardinia Bay Golf & Wildlife Estate eagerly await his interesting monthly reports.
Thankfully, recent ones have been more bloom than gloom.
With all the rain that has fallen in Gqeberha since the latter bit of April, Nigel’s measurements are being followed particularly closely and the reports for May and mid-June make for fascinating reading.
According to the “Mom-in-Law” gauge, 214mm of rain fell in the fifth month of the year.
This is 105mm more than the average of the past three years and the third-wettest May in Nigel’s 27 years of record-keeping.
The comparison between the first five months of 2025 (305mm) versus 2026 (469mm) is also pleasing.
At the time of writing, the record for the wettest-ever June did not appear to be in danger.
The 96mm recorded halfway through the month was still some way off the 2011 mark of 289mm.
That said, it was well on its way to trumping the 102mm average of the past three years and had already blitzed 2017 when a paltry 2mm hardly disturbed the scorers.
Nigel says the timing of the recent downpours cannot have been better as the second half of 2025 was a particularly dry spell.
“The place was brown. If the borehole wasn’t here the golf course would have suffered and we could have lost some of the animals as well,” he says.
The estate’s resident weatherman hardly misses a thing when it comes to the comings and goings of rain and precipitation.
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One of the phenomena he points to is the orographic ascent that occurs between Sardinia Bay and nearby Mount Pleasant.
This refers to winds pushing a moist air mass upwards. As it rises, it expands and cools and the moisture condenses into clouds that bring rain.
“As the mass goes up the hill towards Mount Pleasant you get a pressure change and you get the rain,” he explains.
“This is why you can leave here (Sards) and the weather is beautiful but get the rain when you reach the top of the hill.”
As much as the rains have breathed fresh life into the estate and city as a whole, Nigel says people will do well to keep an eye on a new “super El Niño” developing in the tropical Pacific Ocean.
These weather patterns can be severe on Southern Hemisphere countries in terms of droughts and wildfires.
Residents who want to be added to Nigel’s database can simply pop him a message.