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12 kn+. A kite day has at least 3 hours of 12 to 35 knots between 10:00 and 19:00. How we count.

Lake · Mpumalanga · South Africa

Grootdraai Dam

Kite days peak in September at 30 %.

A kite day has at least 3 hours of 12 to 35 knots (gusts up to 45) between 10:00 and 19:00, in daylight. Percentages are the share of such days in each month, counted over 9 years.

  1. J6
  2. F8
  3. M4
  4. A7
  5. M5
  6. J14
  7. J16
  8. A27
  9. S30
  10. O21
  11. N16
  12. D10
Kite days by month at Grootdraai Dam: Jan 6 %, Feb 8 %, Mar 4 %, Apr 7 %, May 5 %, Jun 14 %, Jul 16 %, Aug 27 %, Sep 30 %, Oct 21 %, Nov 16 %, Dec 10 %
  • Prime 60 % and more
  • Good 40 to 59 %
  • Possible 20 to 39 %
  • Off under 20 %
  • No data hatched
  • Ringed: this month

Prime also needs a good month in at least 7 of the 9 years, so one freak year cannot make a month Prime. A month with 60 %+ but fewer good years shows as Good.

Confidence lowLake or river spot: global weather models underestimate local thermal winds here.

Live forecastShow on map

Month by month

MonthKite days% of days, verdictGood yearsof 9, reached 50 %
  • Kite days
    21 % Possibleabout 7 of 31 days
    Too light, kiteable, too strong
    • Too light 79 %
    • Kiteable 21 %
    • Too strong 0 %
    Good years
    2017: 23 % kite days2018: 10 % kite days2019: 39 % kite days2020: 10 % kite days2021: 29 % kite days2022: 7 % kite days2023: 23 % kite days2024: 19 % kite days2025: 32 % kite days0 of 9 years reached 50 % kite days
    Best hours
    14:00 to 16:00when the wind is most often 12 to 35 knots
    Daylight
    12.7 h
    Air
    25 °Cdaily maximum, 24 °C during kite hours
    Rain
    7 of 31with 1 mm or more
    In one sentence

    In October, Grootdraai Dam averaged 7 kite days out of 31 (21 %).

Good year: at least half the days of that month were kite days. Trip odds are hidden here: at low confidence the model does not see this spot's wind well enough to count on. Best hours: the hours from 10:00 on when the wind most often reaches 12 to 35 knots. Rain day: 1 mm or more of rain.

Source: ECMWF IFS 9 km via Open-Meteo, hourly model wind, 2017 to 2025; water temperature 2023 to 2025. How we count kite days and trip odds

Trip odds at Grootdraai Dam

Trip odds are hidden here: at low confidence the model does not see this spot's wind well enough to count on.

How the wind behaves

In September, the windiest month

  • Too light 70 %
  • Kiteable 30 %
  • Too strong 0 %

Too light on 70 %, kiteable on 30 %, too strong on 0 % of days.

Best hours: 12:00 to 16:00, when the wind is most often 12 to 35 knots.

NESW

Share of kite days by wind direction, 16 sectors

Wind mostly from W (270°), fairly steady direction.

Kitesurfing at Grootdraai Dam: quick answers

When is the best time to kitesurf at Grootdraai Dam?

No month reaches 50 % kite days. The windiest month is September, when 30 % of days were kite days from 2017 to 2025.

Is Grootdraai Dam windy in October?

Sometimes. 21 % of days in October were kite days from 2017 to 2025, about 7 days in a typical October.

How many kite days does Grootdraai Dam get in a year?

About 50 days a year were kite days from 2017 to 2025, out of 365. A kite day has at least 3 hours of 12 to 35 kn model wind between 10:00 and 19:00 in daylight, with gusts up to 45 kn.

Live forecast

The numbers above are long term averages. The forecast shows the next days.

Live forecast from Windy

The forecast map for Grootdraai Dam comes from windy.com (Windyty SE, Prague, Czech Republic) and opens right here on this page. Once you load it, your browser contacts Windy, which receives your IP address and may set its own cookies. Nothing is loaded before you click.

Spot facts

Region
Mpumalanga
Country
South Africa
Water body
Lake, from Natural Earth map data
Nearest airport
O.R. Tambo International Airport (JNB), 139 km straight line. Flights are not sold here; this is for planning only.
Time zone
UTC+02:00 in October
Coordinates
-26.9364, 29.3189
Model
ECMWF IFS 9 km via Open-Meteo, hourly
Satellite view of Grootdraai Dam

Conditions, checked against kite guides

Water state, flat areas, waves and whether schools teach here, from kite sources, not from satellite images.

Not yet checked against kite guides. We research spot conditions one by one and show only what a kite source says.

Plan your trip

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One mail, about 8 weeks before your month starts, with the kite day odds for that month and the link to this page. No newsletter.

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kiteCOMPASS · method k3h-10to19-v1 · 2017 to 2025

Model wind: ECMWF IFS 9 km via Open-Meteo, hourly, 2017 to 2025. Water temperature: 2023 to 2025. Kite day: at least 3 hours of 12 to 35 kn model wind between 10:00 and 19:00 in daylight, with gusts up to 45 kn. Confidence: low.

Cite this

In October, 21 % of days at Grootdraai Dam met the kiteCOMPASS kite day rule: at least 3 hours of 12 to 35 kn model wind between 10:00 and 19:00 in daylight, with gusts up to 45 kn (ECMWF IFS 9 km via Open-Meteo, hourly, 2017 to 2025). https://kitecompass.app/spot/grootdraai-dam

Numbers on this page are free to reuse under CC BY 4.0: name kiteCOMPASS and link to this page.