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October2023Weather diary page Oct 5, Kanagawa: Weather is finally returning to normal seasonal temps. High today was 27 or so, a bit over average, but night lows are going into the high teens and the daytime highs are edging down to low to mid 20's. Saw flying fish in Tokyo Bay today. You can download a crappy video (zoomed was on max, cheap phone) that will likely download slowly, but you can clearly see them. https://filedn.com/lJ3YxkqPhCQJ55qtOyKrlSu/forum/flyingfish01.mp4. Those are flying fish, right? I've never seen them before. Oct 7, NR: They look like birds to me, judging from the flight pattern, but hard to see. Here's some footage to compare: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/15MU9iyVjSU?feature=share This is the 'ships passing in the night' season for north & south hemispheres - our temps are pretty much the same as Kanagawa. There has been respite from the early heat surge, which is nice, coz i'm putting on yet another porch roof, this time on the western side of the house. Theory is it will take a couple of degrees off the inside during the hottest days of summer. Rainy day today has prevented me from getting the last two sheets up, but outlook looks good - dry, not hot. Most problematic build i've done, trying to fit in with wonky house wall & building around metal power tube going into house - will be glad when its done. Typhoon Koinu crossed southern tip of Taiwan a couple of days ago. Reports from Dulan say everything was ok. Was only rated a Cat2-3 but somehow it broke the record for fastest windspeed for a typhoon in Asia - which is saying something. A gust of 342 kmph(!) was measured on Lan Yu. Either the modelers got it wrong with their Cat classification - or it somehow produced some rogue gusts. I've seen the pics of devastation from Lan Yu, which, for an island that's used to getting blasted, suggest that the wind recording was correct. No observed snake activity so far. Lack of rain has kept grass from growing too fast. Heard koels for first time this season yesterday. Night-time temps forecast to drop back to 7 this coming week, though somehow it hasn't felt as cold as the forecast. Maybe coz days are longer so house stays warmer longer, or i'm more used to it. Oct 13, Kanagawa: Clear, 18C with low wind at 7:30AM. Beautiful day ahead. (Re Oct 5 post: They were flying fish. Apparently common in this area. Saw them in the local market.) Oct 22, NR: Spell of good working weather has ended with a heatwave starting today & going several days (33-35C). Big Dry is continuing - no rain for about two weeks - chance of something in 4-5 days. Has slowed grass growth down - haven't cut for about a month - tree plantation & north creek side i haven't cut even once yet. West side porch roof is on - does make it a bit cooler though still getting some sun through northern windows. That will end in a couple of weeks. First two tomatoes sprouted yesterday & today. New pullets have been laying for about 10 days. Noticed wallaby with joey was eating 'rough sow thistle'. Chooks have no interest in it so i guessed it was a kind of TCM for wallabies. Sure enough it's known to be eaten by sows to 'aid milk flow'. Is also edible for humans apparently. Haha! Seems we are both editing at same time ... Oct 22, Kanagawa: Excellent weather. Lows in the low to mid teens, highs in the low 20's, low humidity, lots of sun. Temps are 2-3 degrees above average for the highs. It's been like this for the past week and is forecast to continue for at least another week. 12C at 6:30 this morning, which is a new low for the season. Oct 28, 2023: Some dramatic spring weather. After the heatwave, it cooled down without the bang, but the next day, around 3pm, we had a wild lightning storm. Not huge winds as is common, but some incredibly close strikes - the ones where you can hear the lightning cut through the air - then some almighty thunder claps. Having just finished the gutter and pipe for the western porch by working through lunch, i was taking a nap - weirdly, i ended up having a good sleep. Next day temps dropped to a max of 19C, which is about as low as the max gets here even in winter. From the time of the storm, it rained pretty much continuously for a day & a half. Forecast was for 'up to 30mm', but we ended up with an even 100 mil. Was good as a tank-filler, which was under half, but i was enjoying the grass not growing due to the dry weather. It's gonna shoot up now though. Dingoreturned yesterday after an absence of a couple of months. Didn't lose any chooks but it was probably just casing the joint for a later attack, which is what happened last time. Will do a Dan Andrews Lockdown for the next few days to monitor the situation. Oct 31, NR: Weird weather event. Hot day, 36C, then it looked like a storm might roll through from the west, as they do, but not much on the radar, then there was a surge of west wind, even a few flashes of lightning within a few k, but nothing eventuated. It was over in under 5 minutes. Enough to knock the power off somehow - couldn't have been more than 50kph wind. When it stopped, it was like it didn't happen - back to dead calm, still hot. That is the kind of weather that can seed a bushfire - though i'll bet my farm the ones already causing trouble in Qld/northern NSW are official 'fuel reduction burns' that were lit with no discernible plan of putting them out. They're all burning away. If we cop one heatwave including one high 30s & windy day, they'll explode - it will be 2018 all over again. There is some rain forecast over several days so that may save their arses, but it's literally playing with fire. Oct 31, Kanagawa: Cloudy day, high in the low 20's, low wind, marking an end to a warm and nice October. Sun is just coming up when I leave for work a bit before 6AM, yet the temps feel like spring. |