January2023
Weather diary page
Jan 1, Kanagawa: It was 2 degrees and very clear out at 6:30 this morning. It looks to be a nice day with low wind and a high of 12.
Jan 4, Kanagawa: 2 degrees at 6:30 AM with clear skies and winds out of the north of about 10 kt. This is the coldest it's been so far this winter.
Jan 10, NR: Had a decent rain early Jan after a dry run from Oct-Dec. Caused a large 'blooming' of wild-mushrooms which are more delicious when fresh. Also a few field-mushrooms near workshed and carport. Encountered large brown snake (world's 2nd or 3rd most venomous) in chooks egg-laying box after hearing alarm sounds from chooks. A few days later i saw a python near the chookhouse, looking like it was trying to get in. Have since weed-whacked around the chook-house & re-netted any gaps. Noticed first leaf 'dew' on wild tomatoes. Partially shaded-plants have produced fruit earlier than full-sun ones. Original has continued to stall at half-fruiting stage though still looks healthy enough. Saw peregrine falcon in last days of Dec. Has felt like the weather has done a switch-a-rooney for a few months now & this was confirmed by reports of an El Nino likely to form as La Nina fades. Meanwhile the mild summer has continued though a run of 29-30 days this week.
Jan 14, Kanagawa: The last ten days have been consistent with mostly clear skies, lows in 3-5 range and highs of 9-12 with low wind. Today we have weather moving up from the south and it's bringing clouds, drizzle, but temps of 15-16 with low winds. It's a welcome change. The cold weather will be returning in two days. Oddly, we saw some trees with a few flowers in the park. I don't think they're cherry blossom, more likely some sort of plum, and there were only a few flowers. This was before the current warm weather rolled in.
Jan 21, Kanagawa: Cold. High today of 8. The highs for the coming week will be 6-9 with lows of -1 to 3. This is below normal by a couple degrees.
Jan 24, Kanagawa: Unusually cold weather for the next few days. The Meteorological Agency has said temperatures are expected to drop significantly to levels seen only once in 10 years, with authorities warning of the threat of frozen water pipes and power outages.
Jan 31, Kanagawa: The last 7-10 days of January have been cold, with highs about 2-3C below average. Today's high will be 8. We've had multiple nights dip below freezing. No snow yet though. Very low humidity as well (for us anyway) -- in the 30-40% range. This morning it was 32%.
Jan 31, NR: Continued pattern of relatively cool (excellent) summer though we're in a hot-spell currently with temps around 30 for a week. Finally had the wham-bam storm on Jan 25 - came from the SSW dropping in over the rock. You could hear the wind roaring through the trees before it arrived. Not a big deal, over in 15 minutes, but it knocked out the power for two hours, as is usual here. I'd estimate the power has gone out 7-8 times in the last year - longest was 3 days - shortest was 2-3 hours. If Taiwan had the same crappy power system as here, the electricity would be out permanently. The next day we had some small hail and more lightning, but not the winds. Bought three new chooks yesterday - they're going through the difficult stage of fitting into the flock. The 'pecking-order' is a real thing & the new arrivals are the lowest of the low. Everyone is in lockdown until things settle down & newbies accept the chook shed as their new sleeping place. Harvested from first wild tomatoes on Jan 27 using the 50-50 method. May have gone slightly early. Not super-flavoursome but ok. Another is probably ready for harvest, others will need a couple more weeks. With the rains, there also came a sprouting of wild mushrooms - a lot. Seems like they need a dryish spell, then a good 20mm of rain to come up. Strong flavour - a bit too strong.