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May2015

Weather diary page

May 8 Tampa Bay: Excellent weather since we arrived August 11. Some afternoon showers a couple weeks ago, dry since, with cool nights and mornings in the low 20s, highs daytime high 20s to 31 or so. Generally clear in the mornings then clouding up a bit in the afternoons. Breezy.

May 8 Taidong: Big hatching of flying ants on May 2 another one tonight. A couple of mil the first time but only some very light drzzle last night so they are not dependent on a downpour to hatch. Typhoon off the coast of north ppe. Forecast path has been swinging like a pendulum from the Ping Dong to Orchid Is. It's now forecast to clip north ppe and recurve and stay off the east coast. If that's the case then it's unlikely to be a big deal here. CWB has had a horror run of forecasting. We've had several 80% pop's, heavy rain warnings, even 100% on one day, but no rain on those days. No real mei yu rain though a front that came through on May 2 was officially declared the first mei yu front - 100mm in some isolated areas in north Taiwan but only 8mm here. Still got a mix of ne winds and southerlies - often within the same day. War wounds have been playing up - assume it's to do with the changeable weather - has been like that since late March. Days are still not too hot but nights are staying warm. Very humid.

May 9 Tampa Bay: Another beautiful morning, highs to hit about 31. Tropical storm Ana is NE of Florida, predicted to hit the Carolinas. Hopefully we'll be living in the country soon so we can start enjoying events such as seasonal bug hatchings!

May 11 Taidong: Super Typhoon Noul was this year's traditional Mother's Day typhoon and after threatening Taiwan for a week it passed harmlessly up the east coast. Was probably as close as you could get to a major typhoon without it really having much impact - just 27mm and 30-40 kph winds that came down off the mountain. Quite calm down in Dulan. Again shows that storms that stay to the east of us are nearly always low impact events. Another typhoon coming on a slightly higher track - not due anywhere near us for another week at least. A lot of activity though and apparently this is a record number of typhoons up to this time of year. There has been a massive berry drop from the rong shu (banyan tree) over the past week. Their reproduction effort is totally off the charts. There must be tens of thousands of berries from this single tree that fall constantly like rain over several days - and each berry contains hundereds of seeds. Every living thing has a right to reproduction but this tree seems to be abusing the privelege.

May 13 Taidong: Some moderate mamatus clouds formed on evening. Supposedly a sign of heavy rain though CWB has forecast dry conditions for the next week. Will see if anything comes of it. Been a quiet start to the mei yu so far. (Did rain the next day but nothing dramatic 5mm or so - CWB has us at 0%!)

May 22 Istachatta FL: I'm using Istachatta because, although our address is Floral City, we're closer to Istachatta. The weather since we moved in 6 days ago has been great. Clear mornings with clouds in the afternoon, a couple sprinkles but no heavy rain, rolling thunder, highs in the low 30's with nighttime lows, not even sure, cool. Cool enough for light blankets at 4am. Saw my first Pileated Woodpecker today in the tree that's threatening to drop one of its very large branches on our roof in a hurricane. It would go right through the roof so considering expensive trimming. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pileated_woodpecker.

May 31, Taidong: Mei Yu began on May 21 and hung around for a week in the south - huge rains in Pingdong - well over 1000mm over several days - though just 100mm here for the week with most of that coming on one day. Again, the rain fell in Taidong when the front moved to the south of taiwan and began to tilt up the east coast. Thick, misty fog on the last day - visibility down to 100 m - i don't know if i have ever seen fog here before. This was the first real mei yu front of the season, so quite late. A different kind of insect hatching occurred during rains - larger size than flying ant though not as plentiful - happened just after dark and in the rain. Since then, front has broken up and there has been virtually no rain. Also nothing in the forecast so it's been a pretty sparse Mei yu event with just a couple of weeks to go. Sudden Death tree has suddenly turned brown. One Phoenix tree on property starting to flower - though they are in full bloom elsewhere. Asparagus are still going strong surprisingly - seems all they need is lots of water in order to put on a spurt of spears. Just started to turn air con on for an hour at night though we are still not in the brutal heat zone yet. Planted hedge bushes from cutting on northern fence line plus two more Phoenix trees. No typhoon activity since the burst in early May. That's pretty normal. Don't really expect much now until late July.