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September2014

Sep 4 Taidong: No discernible change from Aug to Sep - just bloody hot, dry, sunny, and calm (very light southerlies). Typhoon forming in usual spot but forecast to head straight up and not affect us. Only hope is a low moving through n ppe.

Sep 5 Taidong: Today does feel a little different. NE wind and some build-up out to sea. CWB has us at 10% pop for today and tonight but radar looks promising and could get rain this afternoon or tonight. (didn't rain until sep 8 - then only 4.5mm)

Sep 5 Kaohsiung: The last week has been very hot and humid. The cool breezes of July and early August were nice while they lasted. Humidity has gone up. Afternoon thunderstorms are happening almost every day near the mountains, but they haven't backed up to the coast for a couple weeks now. Every afternoon it gets very dark looking east. Having lived in that area, I know what's happening. Lots of hard rain and spectacular lightning. But here in Kaohsiung, we get stifling humidity. Good thing we live right near the ocean. The collection of wannabe typhoons east of the Philippines is starting to act indecisively. We might get something out of that yet.

Sep 9 Kaohsiung: I got the first faint whiff of Fall in the air in the late afternoon. Very subtle, but unmistakeable. It must come from something happening in the vegetation. No doubt we have plenty of hot hot days ahead, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

Sep 17 Taidong: Typhoon passed through northern ppe a few days ago - strong winds from ne for 12 hours or more but weak poleward outflow so only 17.5mm of rain over three days. Days, and even nights still quite hot - off a level from July Aug but no real major shift in weather yet and no obvious dbjf. phoenix tree still flowering. Temps have been above ave for june, july and aug (rainfall well down for Aug)and seems sep is heading that way too. Definitely the hottlest, longest, driest summer i can remember. If this is what climate change looks like, i don't like it.

Sep 17 Kaohsiung: It's been insanely hot the last week or so. We hit an all time high of 37.6 about three days ago. A storm forming now in the usual location has the best chance yet of cooling things off. The last one was a straight runner. This one looks like it's going to be less predictable.

Sep 21 Taidong: Typhoon Fung Wong passed through northern ppe, did a sharp right turn and came directly up to Taiwan and traveled all the way up the east coast of Taiwan. Big rain in the south - about 1000mm in some areas for the duration, but only 252mm in XC. Eye passed right over my land, which was nice. Fairly weak typhoon though a few good gusts from both directions. All the rain was in the front half. Thought the tail might drag over us and produce some more but there was nothing. Lack of poleward outflow prevented this typhoon from dropping the rain loads that XangZane did back in 2000 when it follwed an almost identical path.

Sep 24 Kaohsiung: Since the passing of Fung-Wong (http://formosahut.com/forum/index.php?id=951), Kaohsiung has been a degree or two cooler, and the forecast is that it stays that way for the next week, with highs at 31-32, lows at 26-27, and occasional showers.

Sep 30 Taidong: Saw a ferret/badger type thing last night. Appeared to be going after one of the chooks which had taken to roosting in a tree. Wasn't the usual kind that come for the eggs (crap eating mongoose) - was larger and didn't have a bushy tail - instead it was long and striped, i think. Very adept climber. Haven't been able to positively identify it from book, though it was either a Small Chinese civet, a Formosan gem-faced civet, or possibly a Formosan ferret/badger. Have set cage trap. Rainfall for Sep was 275mm which sounds ok but was well below ave. http://formosahut.com/forum/index.php?id=894. Only two rain events over 5mm.Bulk of the rain was from Fung Wong. Ku lien tree's berries are turning yellow. Very little hornet activity so far and no fireflies that i've noticed. Weather has been pretty nice recently. Like what summer should be like - quite warm to hot in the day - though not that crushing heat - and cool at night - been sleeping without even the fan on for last few nights. If summer was like that every day then we really would be living in paradise. No real dbjf as yet. Hopefully that's a good sign for a moderate season of it, though a gusting ne wind has just sprung up this evening - not sure what that's about. Blue migratory bird has returned, which is a couple of weeks earlier than i recorded it last year.