Mean concentrations of ammonia gas released as a tracer from an isolated low-rise building have been measured and predicted. Predictions were calculated using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and two dispersion models: a diffusion model and a Lagrangian particle tracking technique. Explicit account was taken of the natural variation of wind direction by a technique based on the weighted summation of individual steady state wind direction results according to the probability density function of the wind direction. The results indicated that at distances >3 building heights downstream the weighted predictions from either model are satisfactory but that in the near wake the diffusion model is less successful. Weighted solutions give significantly improved predictions over unweighted results. Lack of plume spread is identified as the main cause of inaccuracies in predictions and this is linked to inadequate resolution of flow features and mixing in the CFD model. Further work on non-steady state simulation of wake flows for dispersion studies is recommended.