Ntshalle Stella Nake
Women in the Environment and Sustainability
Nominee's Province:
Western Cape
Project Name/Description:
Senior Forecaster at the South African Weather Service
Ntshalle Stella Nake’s fascination with travelling clouds and lightning from an early age sent her on a quest in search of answers. Years later, that curiosity converged with her love for mathematics and science, shaped her career path to weather forecasting. Today, Nake is a senior forecaster at the South African Weather Service (SAWS) at its Cape Town office in the Western Cape. She acquired a Bachelor’s and Honours degrees in Meteorology from the University of Pretoria. Once qualified, she joined the SAWS forecasting team in 2006, working herself up to becoming a senior forecaster. On a normal day, she is responsible for the quality and the timeliness of all weather-related warnings. But her career does sometimes require weathering the storms, particularly with the impact of climate change. She remembers having been in the middle of the June 2017 Cape Storm that affected the south-western parts of South Africa, ending up in eight fatalities and damaging 135 schools in the Western Cape.“This required working long hours to save lives against these harsh weather impacts through actively relaying weather messages to different end-users for their safety,” says Nake. One of her career highlights was taking part in the SAWS-SAEON schools project, where she educated learners about weather forecasting as a career and related job opportunities. This intervention led to a young girl from Athlone pursuing a career in Atmospheric Science at the University of Cape Town. Nake, who is studying towards a Master’s degree in Disaster Management with the University of Free State, aims to continuously advocate for young people in rural areas and women to pursue science as a career. “Empowering young women through science education will lead our country towards sustainable economic development,” says Nake.
