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Weather diary page

Dec 2, Kanagawa: 5 degrees at 6AM, which is the coldest it's been so far. Supposed to get down to 4 tonight. Clear skies all day with light wind.

Dec 14, NR: After a a mild Nov, i was thinking the El Nino effect was over-hyped, but a flick switched in Dec & it's kicked into gear now. Two weeks of dry 30+ weather with no relief in sight. A storm forecast for tomorrow is the only hope for rain but temps are mid-30s all of next week. Dec should be storm season, meaning rain about once a week at least, but that's all gone missing. Just saw two baby rails with their parents. Rails are pretty much solitary birds, but both parents appear to be on duty for the raising of the chicks. Hot weather is defeating my veggie patch this year - even you water it almost daily, it's still not enough. Tomatoes are not doing well.

Dec 16, Kanagawa: December has seen mostly above normal temps, today particularly so with a high of 22 or so. That's about ten degrees above normal. It's been very windy with sustained winds of 25kt. Temps are going to plummet starting tonight, high tomorrow to be 14 then in three day it's not supposed to go above ten, so major changes in store.

Dec 17, Kanagawa: 12C at 7:30AM with sustained wind of 26kt and gusts to 45. At least it's sunny. Cold front moving in. It's supposed to get down to 3 tomorrow. So from 22 yesterday to 3 in the course of less than 72 hours.

Dec 20, Kanagawa: We seem to have settled into a typical winter weather pattern. Temps are more normal with lows in single digits and highs around 10-14. Not too bad as long as the wind doesn't kick up, but once it does, ouch.

Dec 21, Kanagawa: Another extremely windy day. Sustained winds of 32kt at 7:00AM with gusts to 50, and the gusts are frequent. It's clear and high to hit 12 or so. Hang on to your hats, boys and girls!

Dec 26, NR: Are those winds dong bei-ji fong? Days are getting shorter! Equinox was Dec 22. Hot pattern has continued apart from one rainy cool change for a few days, where it's low-mid 30s. It's the midst of stormy season - as usual they roll through in hit-or-miss style. Had a rare 'sandwich' storm this evening - one storm dropped down from NNW, very odd, never seen one come from there, whilst another approached from the west (traditional). The two storm cells collided right here. The wind was pretty wild - you could see the clouds coming from different directions - some rain - not too much - sun was still shining through for a lot of it - almost like being in the eye at one stage. Elsewhere, there have been 4 people hit by lightning & a two killed by falling trees, flash flooding, massive hailstones, rooves ripped off - so it's an active storm season with some punch to it. Winds of 100+ kph on the Gold Coast, which copped a big storm last night.

Dec 29, NR: Some weird wallaby behaviour - in the middle of a hot day, i noticed several wallabies jumping around in a seemingly confused way. One even came up on the porch & 'knocked' on the door trying to get into the house. Chief suspect is a dingo in the area, but i couldn't see any, & it's kinda odd for a dingo to be hunting in the middle of a hot day. Curiously, they weren't bolting, which is what you'd expect if fleeing a predator, but looked confused, going one way then coming back. The next day the chooks were acting strange & i began to seriously wonder what was going on. There's a heatwave happening, so wondered if the heat was driving everyone nuts. If it was Taiwan, i'd be expecting an earthquake any second. The chooks were huddling under the closest bushes & refusing to come out whilst making a sound which usually indicates an eagle threat. Initially, i couldn't see anything, but finally the ravens did flush out what i thought was a sea eagle - didn't get a good look at it - could have been a grey goshawk now i think about it, or possibly even a barn owl, though it was still daylight, so that would be unusual. Even after it flew off, the chooks were very reluctant to come out & i trouble finding them all, but eventually all were accounted for even though i had to physically carry several back to the shed lock-up. Good to know their danger instincts are working well, at least.