February2024
Weather diary page
Feb 5, NR: Extended heatwave. Main story though is the humidity. Nights are much hotter than last year. Regularly 25C + in bedroom when i retire each night. Rain didn't really materialize from cyclone, which amazingly, is still churning away in central Qld. Stalled near Mt Isa for several days, dropping 3-400 mil in areas that don't usually get big rain. It's only today that it's taken off on its re-curvature trip to NZ. The lack of mountains in Aus seems to allow cyclones to linger on over land way longer than in Taiwan. Still able to draw enough moisture in from ocean to stay active. Due to exit south of here, so shouldn't cause any problems. Planted second crop of zucchini & cucumber. Cucumbers were out of control this year - a punnet of four plants produced maybe 60 or more large cucumbers - way more than i can eat. South side avocado has some fruit - not a lot - probably another month away from picking. This will be its first crop providing nothing eats it.
Feb 6, Kanagawa: Getting hit with the first cold winter storm of the season. No snow on the coast, but they were calling for 10cm inland a bit. Windy, wet, low of 1, high of 5 today.
Feb 11, NR: A week of rainy, gloomy weather. Not huge (10mm per day), but persistent, & more than enough to raise the water table. Put the lock on access road to keep drongo Essential Energy workers in their big 4wds out, who seem to get a text-alert to 'Go tear up Mike's access road' whenever the water-table is up. A quick (Covid-style) research into the laws revealed they're not allowed to 'just rock up', they must give notification in writing or otherwise it's trespassing. Nobody at EE seemed aware of this law - they've been routinely ignoring it for many years. Once i pointed out the fines involved though, they did finally get the message. Temps back to 23 C in bedroom at night. Still no sign of wallabies. Something definitely happened that day they all looked confused & one tried to enter the house - almost certainly wild dogs. One of the chooks (Whitey/Dzangi) became ill a few days ago. I've put her in ISO. Hopeful that she's just eaten something that was off. She did come back late one evening with her face covered in black gunk, so maybe she found some kind of carrion. She looks slightly better today.
Feb 17, Kanagawa: Generally above average temps for all of Feb. with a couple very short exceptions. Unseasonably warm weather moving in for the second time this month. Some moisture is moving in now, but most of the winter has been extremely dry. The apples this year (store bought from Japan), seemed not nearly as good as last year's, and I wonder if this has anything to do with the very hot summer of 2023.
Feb 23, Kanagawa: Major cold front coming through keeping temps a few degrees below normal for a solid week, this right on the heels of what must have been near record warmth. High today of 5 or so. Never got below freezing, but wet and generally nasty. Hopefully this will be the last major cold blast of this winter. This one is forecast to last through the 1st or 2nd of March. Note how reality doesn't match the above forecast.
NR, Feb 28: Power went out for the fourth time this month - usually goes down for 1-2 hours. It's a total farce - some of the highest prices in the world but coupled with the worst service. A welcome dry week of weather - hot, around 30 or higher each day. Male wallaby returned a couple of days ago - hopefully he's come to check things out then gives the all clear to the rest of the gang. Whitey made a spectacular recovery. After i thought she was getting better, she took a step backward. She was looking miserable as if to say 'Mike, i can't cope with this anymore' so i'd decided to give her one more day then put her out of her suffering if she didn't improve. The next day she didn't improve noticeably, but didn't get worse, so i gave her another day. Then finally she did rally. Usually chooks don't come good from serious illness, so it was kind of a miracle. Finally gave her a bath, which she seemed to accept without struggle. After two more days in ISO, i let her out & although she looked a bit weak for a week, she has now made a full recovery.