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October2017Weather diary page October 7, Taidong: Saw (with naked eye then binoculars) what I am almost certain was a grey goshawk in dead tree out the back (ocean side), but when I checked it in the book it said only 'one recorded sighting' in Taiwan. I am positive it was a hawk and it was white/grey and there was nothing else in the book that looked like it - anyway, will be keenly watching to see if it comes back. First Dong Bei Ji Fong began a couple of days ago - today was the biggest but not massive - also brought cooler temps today which was nice and exactly according to my plan of cutting out a chunk of summer. Was stinking hot the first several days of oct and that followed on from a hot sep. Plenty of hornets around - no typhoons so they've had a good crack at breeding this year - luckily no nest sightings around property. Started preparing the garden bed for planting - getting cool enough now to start putting stuff in October 11, Istachatta: Hot. We had a couple cool days after Irma, but now it's hot. It's been consistently 10F above normal temperatures, with daytime highs in the low 90's, breaking records here and there. It makes the remaining Irma cleanup a task that can be put off until it cools down. October 14, Istachatta: Still hot. It's supposed to fall back to normal later in the coming week. Oct 16, Taidong: After an intense lightning storm as a kind of closing fireworks ceremony, Khanun finally dissipated. In the end, after days of rain, it was remarkable how suddenly the main body of the storm seemed to disappear in a puff of smoke as soon as it reached China. At its height, rain got to dangerous landslide causing levels here (300 mil before lunchtime on Sat) and caused erosion issues on the property that threatened to do some serious damage. Showed why it's good to be here during such an event as I was able to take steps to divert the flow out onto the road and away from the base of the chicken house. Landslide wet through a hotel in Chihben which again highlighted the questionable rampant development in that area. The main highway just south of Dulan, which had scandalously been left unprepared from last year's typhoon season, suffered further damage with the left lane heading to Taidong collapsing and falling into the ocean - pure good luck that not-one was killed. Also a good example of a typhoon not needing to be a cat 5 (only reached cat 1-2) to be dangerous - and the destruction can happen well away from the eye of the storm when its circulation is more disorganised - the worst period here was when the eye was already to the ssw of Taiwan Actually a similar scenario to a typhoon that happened this time last year - typhoon tracking to the south of Taiwan, moving slowly, interacting with the north east monsoon and circulating massive raIn onto the east coast. Hasn't brought much drop in temps - today there is some sunshine and it's hot - incredibly humid of course Oct 23, Taidong: Yesterday was the first track pants day of the season and coolish again today. Planted the bulk of my winter crop in the last few days - needed to do the lettuce twice coz the geese demolished the first crop. Saw a few quail crossing the road and the first dull-blue bird of the season that normally takes up winter residence under the shed eaves. Production line of typhoons happening - apart from the one above a cat five headed north to Japan and another seems to be following suit Oct 25, Istachatta: Weather has finally cooled. First cold front of the season arrived. 59F when I got up this morning, highs today lost 70's and not a cloud in the sky. Excellent weather to do just about anything outside. Lows tonight high 40's to low 50's (10C). Oct 31, Istachatta: It was 37F/6C this morning when I got up. That's about as low as it gets here. |