Formosa Hut Wiki | Main / October2012

Oct 1: A definite seasonal shift has taken place. This is absolutely certain at this point. No going back until April or something like that. The high for the entire next week is only supposed to be 28, with the low being 23, and no major weather patters rolling through. We have seem to have been getting DBF recently, and it's been cool and overcast, partly due to Jelawat remnants. This morning is sunny, cool, and beautiful.
Oct 2: Noticed first berries on ku ling tree and luan shu has also started blooming in last week. Sunny, pleasant temp with moderate to strong dbjf. Still plenty of typ activity around - chance one will come our way next week. Need sweater to sit outside at night. Air con and fans off. Noticed blue/brown bird in carport this morning - he's back to stake his territory - on top of car, singing. Checked records for last year and it appeared at almost exactly the same time. However, yellow wagtails are much later this year than previous years.
Oct 7: The weather has been very comfortable, highs forecasted to be in the high twenties, but a few days felt much cooler. Today is sunny, breezy, and comfortable. There is one (final?) storm developing in the usual location. This is probably the last chance of getting any storm action for the season.
Oct10: Dong Bei Ji Fong has really kicked into gear. Much more pronounced than last year, which was unusually moderate. Last few days have been strong, but today is bigger still. (Dan says) I second that. It's been very strong so far and it seems to have started earlier, though I have only one year to compare it to. It looks like Prapiroon will be adding a kick behind the DBF for the next couple of days. On that note, most models have Prapiroom recurving NE in a couple of days, but the Japan weather service still has it coming much closer to us. It looks like whatever it ends up doing, it's going to be sitting out there for a while.
Oct 11: More mighty stiff winds this morning, and it's quite cool. Prapiroon has not started it's turn yet and may be contributing to the gusts we're getting. (Mike)Very hard to know what effect the typhoon is having on these winds if any but this is even bigger than yesterday and about as big as i've seen the dbjf. (there was one year when it blew down a large tree on my land) Major dust storms and big surf. Historically, October is the month for the biggest winds so it's actually fairly normal. (Dan) Saw the first Blue Heron today, at least that's what we call them in the US. It must be migratory as it occurred to me when I saw it that I hadn't seen it since spring. Mike, if this is normal, I now understand your 'wait until the dbjf comes' comments upon seeing our place! I was in Zhiben most of the day, and there is a heavy dust storm building in Taidong/Zhiben area. It's very hazy. On the drive back, the surf was going nuts. It is hard to say what effect, if any, the typhoon is having, but the very outer bands of it do seem to be encroaching on us. I have always found wind more disruptive than any other day-to-day element, and this dbjf is certainly disruptive if you want to do anything outside.
Oct 12: Yeah, last year was pleasantly moderate, but i think that was an exception - this is more like what i've seen in other years. Another huge dbjf building today. It does generally calm down overnight (but not always)and the first gusts started to come through around 8am. now 10.30am and blowing strong but still building. Typhoon has stalled for last 12 hours. Here's the link to the wind map for Taiwan - it does seem to show the typhoon feeding into the dbjf to some extent: http://www.surf-forecast.com/weather_maps/Taiwan?over=pressure_arrows&type=wind Actually, looking at that map again, i don't know how accurate it is - would seem to be way under-estimating the winds that we have got here at the moment. Yesterday i think it was gusting up to 70kph at least.
Oct 14: Large flock of hawks (20-30) rambled past this afternoon - must have given the chickens a bit of a shock. There is a particular hawk that does flock, a migratory species, but this is the first time i've seen it in such large numbers. seemed to be heading north. Quite hot today and dbjf has dropped off making it almost perfect weather.
Oct 21: Brief cool change a couple of days ago but no rain and now it's back to hot and dry. Serious lack of rainfall and looks like it's going to get worse. Oct ave is 182, so far we have gotten 3ml. And CWB forecast is 'no rainfall' for rest of monthy. Some mountain trees are turning red. Bird calling at night with single, mournful note - possible egret. Small heron faced me off on a back road - not wanting to get out of the road to let me pass - guess it had a nest nearby.
Oct 26: We had between 10-20 mil of rain on the 24th. Things got a much needed soaking. This morning I saw a bird I hadn't seen before and I still need to figure out what it was. It was very small, with a reddish or rust-colored breast, dark wings with a white score on the side, and it's head was lighter than the dark feathers of its wings. It looked like it may have had a light band of some sort around it's neck. I would say it was a Varied Tit (Parus varius) except this bird had a very prominent white mark on it's wing. See http://is.gd/5A1BZN for pics of Parus varius. (I just can't bring myself to write 'See http://is.gd/5A1BZN for pics of Varied Tits.)
Oct 31: first cold front of the season passed through taiwan bringing a drop in temperatures and 14ml (XC). Total rainfall for Oct was 37ml, well below the ave of 185ml. Pair of falcons appeared about 3-4 weeks ago and have hung around since.

Major hurricane hits US causing 85 deaths there. Wasn't that it was so powerful, in fact technically not even a hurricane, but very large size and it's arrival coincided with a king tide. Most of the deaths seemed to be caused by storm surge rather than wind or flooding from the rain. Much flatter terrain than Taiwan allowed water to sweep inland.