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August2015

Weather diary page

Aug 7 Taidong: Typhoon Soudelor made landfall a bit north of Hualien city on the night of Aug 7. Big wind typhoon for north east and north Taiwan with reports of huge wind even in inner city Taipei. Main rain seemed to fall in Taoyuan and Wulai where the road was blocked and 100 people were trapped for a couple of days. Aboriginal village in Taoyuan was hit by mudslide but thankfully they had already been evacuted. After making landfall the typhoon took a sharp, unforecast, south west turn. Not the first typhoon to do this. This dragged out it's stay over Taiwan and increased the rainfall to more than i had reckoned as it approached. 1000mm or more for Ilan mountains, Wu lai, Taoyuan, and Yang Mind Shan over two days. As seems to be the pattern, the rain then fed into the south west with 1000 mm plus there over two days. 7 people reported dead, though three of those were a family that got swept away by waves in Su Ao before typhoon arrived and another was when an emergency worker clearing a tree got run down by a drunk driver in Ping dong, also before the typhoon had really arrived there. So, in general, given the strength of the typhoon, just 3 actual typhoon casualties shows a good, and much improved effort on the part of Taiwan's disaster prevention authorities. In Taidong, predictably, the effect of the typhoon was negligible. Some decent gusts as it approached, but only 9mm in the front half. Then not much wind until it started coming from the south, but nothing serious. Another 30mm of rain. Again, when the eye goes north of us, there is very little effect in Taidong.

As Soudelor left Taiwan, a small tornado touched down in Tainan. There is video of it.

Aug 15 Taidong: Weather has remained not too bad - 32 most days - nowhere near as intense as that June heat and broken up by the typhoon. Cooler than last year at least. But still dry. Only rained once in the last month and that was just 40mm from the typhoon. Another couple of typhoons have just formed in the usual place - one of them is a chance to hit Taiwan. Phoenix trees still blooming but getting to the end.

Aug 18 Istachatta: Wet. Just wet. We've had a few days in the last couple weeks on which we got 3-5" (25-125mm) of rain at over 1"/hour. It has rained most days since early July. July saw 22 straight days of rain, or something like that. Not constant rain. It usually starts in the afternoon. All the locals are saying this is very unusual.

Aug 21 Taidong: Typhoon Goni stalled just on the north east tip of PPe then slowly moved northward, about 100k off the east coast of Taiwan. A few huge gusts,, but just a few, and about 90 mil. The real damage happened in the PPE as its stalled position had it pumping rain into the north west coast for over 2 days. Latest reports have 35 dead or missing, though barely raised a blimp on the international media.

Aug 26 Istachatta: The unusually heavy rains have stopped, and it's hot. Not quite the biting heat of Taitung, but not too far off. At least it does cool down to about 75/25 most nights. Highs are between 34-36 every day. According to all the historical data, the temps fall off a little in September then dramatically by the end of Sep or early Oct.

Aug 27 Taidong: The first part of a day for several months that could be described even vaguely as 'cool' yesterday - had jeans on in the evening. Seems to be courtesy of one of Dan's famous Pingdong Lows - the kind that sits of the south west coast of Taiwan and feeds rain up into Taiwan. In this scenario, Pingdong, Kaohsiung and the west coast can get days of steady to heavy rain - and that's what's been happening. In Taidong we had moderate rain, 10-15 mil over a few days, but a significant temperature drop. In fact, with the odd typhoon breaking things up, June remains as the worst part of summer this year by far. Dug up garden and put in an array of seedlings, including tomatoes. A bit on the early side to be planting but am taking advantage of the xiao bang shous who will be leaving in a couple of days. Will see if anything survives. ''' Aug 31 Taidong:''' Temps dropped off considerably in last few days of Aug to round off a bearable summmer. 15.5 mil today - total of 162 mm for Aug, which is way below ave of 302. Low that formed after typhoon to the south west of Taiwan morphed into a coldfront that extended all the way to Japan. Dropped rain on the south and west coast all the way to Taipei daily for the last 10 days. The front is very similar in nature to a mei yu front - just sitting there. Seems very early for a cold front. (actualy, just checked and there was one about the same time last year) Typhoon activity has dropped off since Goni. Brown snake with black stripes near house.