Lake · Free State · South Africa
Sterkfontein Dam
Best for kiting from August to September, with 53 to 59 % kite days.
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.
- 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.
Month by month
- Kite days
- 40 % Goodabout 12 of 31 days
- Too light, kiteable, too strong
- Too light 59 %
- Kiteable 40 %
- Too strong 1 %
- Good years
- 3 of 9 years reached 50 % kite days
- Best hours
- 12:00 to 16:00when the wind is most often 12 to 35 knots
- Daylight
- 12.8 h
- Air
- 23 °Cdaily maximum, 22 °C during kite hours
- Rain
- 7 of 31with 1 mm or more
- In one sentence
In October, Sterkfontein Dam averaged 12 kite days out of 31 (40 %).
| Kite days% of days | 24 | 19 | 21 | 27 | 25 | 41 | 48 | 59 | 53 | 40 | 46 | 43 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Verdictshare plus good years | Possible | Off | Possible | Possible | Possible | Good | Good | Good | Good | Good | Good | Good |
| Good yearsof 9, reached 50 % | 0 of 9 | 0 of 9 | 0 of 9 | 0 of 9 | 0 of 9 | 3 of 9 | 3 of 9 | 7 of 9 | 4 of 9 | 3 of 9 | 3 of 9 | 3 of 9 |
| Best hourshour of day, most often 12 to 35 kn | 12 to 17 | 14 to 17 | 14 to 16 | 12 to 16 | 12 to 15 | 12 to 16 | 11 to 16 | 12 to 16 | 12 to 16 | 12 to 16 | 12 to 16 | 13 to 16 |
| Daylighth | 13.7 | 13.1 | 12.3 | 11.4 | 10.7 | 10.4 | 10.5 | 11.1 | 11.9 | 12.8 | 13.5 | 13.9 |
| Air°C, daily maximum | 25 | 24 | 23 | 20 | 19 | 16 | 16 | 19 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 |
| Rain days1 mm or more | 15 of 31 | 14 of 28 | 11 of 31 | 8 of 30 | 2 of 31 | 1 of 30 | 1 of 31 | 3 of 31 | 5 of 30 | 7 of 31 | 11 of 30 | 15 of 31 |
- In January, Sterkfontein Dam averaged 7 kite days out of 31 (24 %).
- In February, Sterkfontein Dam averaged 5 kite days out of 28 (19 %).
- In March, Sterkfontein Dam averaged 7 kite days out of 31 (21 %).
- In April, Sterkfontein Dam averaged 8 kite days out of 30 (27 %).
- In May, Sterkfontein Dam averaged 8 kite days out of 31 (25 %).
- In June, Sterkfontein Dam averaged 12 kite days out of 30 (41 %).
- In July, Sterkfontein Dam averaged 15 kite days out of 31 (48 %).
- In August, Sterkfontein Dam averaged 18 kite days out of 31 (59 %).
- In September, Sterkfontein Dam averaged 16 kite days out of 30 (53 %).
- In October, Sterkfontein Dam averaged 12 kite days out of 31 (40 %).
- In November, Sterkfontein Dam averaged 14 kite days out of 30 (46 %).
- In December, Sterkfontein Dam averaged 13 kite days out of 31 (43 %).
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 Sterkfontein 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 August, the windiest month
- Too light 41 %
- Kiteable 59 %
- Too strong 0 %
Too light on 41 %, kiteable on 59 %, too strong on 0 % of days.
Best hours: 12:00 to 16:00, when the wind is most often 12 to 35 knots.
Share of kite days by wind direction, 16 sectors
Wind steadily from WNW (293°).
Kitesurfing at Sterkfontein Dam: quick answers
When is the best time to kitesurf at Sterkfontein Dam?
The best months are August to September: from 2017 to 2025, 53 to 59 % of days in those months were kite days.
Is Sterkfontein Dam windy in October?
Yes, often. 40 % of days in October were kite days from 2017 to 2025, about 12 days in a typical October.
How many kite days does Sterkfontein Dam get in a year?
About 136 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 Sterkfontein 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
- Free State
- Country
- South Africa
- Water body
- Lake, from Natural Earth map data
- Nearest airport
- Pietermaritzburg Airport (PZB), 190 km straight line. Flights are not sold here; this is for planning only.
- Time zone
- UTC+02:00 in October
- Coordinates
- -28.4331, 29.0241
- Model
- ECMWF IFS 9 km via Open-Meteo, hourly
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.
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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, 40 % of days at Sterkfontein 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/sterkfontein-dam
Numbers on this page are free to reuse under CC BY 4.0: name kiteCOMPASS and link to this page.