Why does SkyWeather not include a RTC?

I think I'll add a loop prior to the job-generation. Checking the time and patting the dog until ntpd has updated the time.

Still wondering however, about the short time of the watchdog. If the system does not get up and running in time, I guess there is a risk that it gets in a kind of rebooting cycle?

I tend to use ntpdate prior starting ntpd. ntpdate [timeserver] will first set the time. Then I start ntpd as if the time difference is too big, the ntpd won't set it. But the network access needs to be pristine. It can take my PiZero setup up to 30minutes to get the good time for startup.
I think I'll add the gowatchdogpat using the timeout command (https://linuxize.com/post/timeout-command-in-linux/) for 5 Minutes. Then Stop it. This time, in case something is wrong/slow, at least I'll have 5minutes for the PI to come up.