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May2014
Weather diary page
- May 2: Flying ants made their first appearance. However, drove into Dulan and didn't see any.
- May 4: First Mei yu front sweeping across north tonight. Looks massive on the radar.
- May 5: Seemed damned chilly for May in Zhiben this afternoon.
- May 8: I've been seeing a few flying ants over the last three days, but very few, and that's strange. Tonight in the kitchen there were two. Usually they come out en masse. Perhaps the annual massive hatch is imminent, but regardless, I don't remember seeing fewer than 3,000,000 at once this time of year. Odd. EDIT: Just saw Mike's May 2 posting on this subject. We didn't see any here, within a couple km of his house. Even if we were gone when they hatched, we would have seen kazillions of wings on the deck and anywhere else with a light, but nothing. I don't think it's happened here yet.
- May 11: The upcoming week is the first week this year that the CWB is forecasting highs over 30 every day. We have gotten this far without the brutal summer heat rearing its head. Looks like we are turning the corner into summer now. I still haven't seen any flying ants.
- May12: Big southerly today and hot - has been a fairly underwhelming mei yu to this point. Lots of rat snake activity this year, including one inside the house. Seeing two or three a day for a few days - assume they are the same ones though different kinds of rat snake - the regular light brown and another darker brown with dirty black stripes. The striped one doesn't seem particularly afraid of me. Tomatoes still going somehow. No repeat performance from flying ants yet.
- May 14: Repeat of the big southerly, actually more or a south-westerly, possibly a foehn wind, hot and dry, and even stronger than a couple of days ago. Started suddenly out of calmness around 10 am and then dropped off just as suddenly around 5pm. Still no decent mei yu rain here and although they are getting it in other places on the island there hasn't been anything above 100mm so would say it's been a subdued mei yu so far this year. Hot and sunny today. No typhoon activity - i think on the south east coast we need the combination of a low pressure to the south and a mei yu front to produce serious rain here. Front exptected to form tomorrow - see what that brings. One flying ant attracted to my desk lamp last night. One. Must be the Johnathan Livingston Seagull of the flying ants. Seeing a few black tiger heads.
- May 15: Well, it's getting up there today.
- May 15 image
- May 21: Significant cool change today with decent dbjf. Big mei yu on and west of the central range the last two days (200mm in mountains) with moderate overflow to the east coast (4-7mm). Haven't seen snakes again after a flurry of activity last week. Strange sreeching sound last night - possibly a lizard. Minor flying ant hatching last night. Summer tomatoes self sprouting.
- May 26: Stinking hot today. Might get another dose of mei yu cloud cover at least in the next few days but summer is knocking down the door. There have been some big falls on the mid-west to north-west side of the island but it's been a dry mei yu in the east so far. The ave rainfall for May here is 155mm but we'll be lucky to get a third of that unless something dramatic happens with the next front. Lightning out to sea last night. Quail hanging out in vegie patch. Lot of insect activity despite several days without rain - including rhinoceros beetle. Summer tomatoes producing first signs of fruit.
- May 31: Hot and sunny days but with isolated showers. 10mm in Dulan but not a drop here.