When Did It Last Rain at Your House?

[EBlair48]

Seems the region is having a drought. Where I'm at, no rain for two months and three weeks, this article writes about twenty days being a long time !

53 % humidity right now, My skin feels dry for the first ever living here- and cobalt blue sky.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/26/us-singapore-malaysia-weather-idUSBREA1P0MY20140226

[snippet]

(Reuters) - Singapore and Malaysia are grappling with some of the driest weather they have ever seen, forcing the tiny city-state to ramp up supplies of recycled water while its neighbor rations reserves amid disruptions to farming and fisheries.

Singapore, which experiences tropical downpours on most days, suffered its longest dry spell on record between January 13 and February 8 and has had little rain since.

Shares in Hyflux Ltd, which operates desalination and water recycling operations in Singapore, have risen 3.5 pct over the past month.

In peninsular Malaysia, 15 areas have not had rainfall in more than 20 days, with some of them dry for more than a month, according to the Malaysian Meteorological Department. The dry weather is expected to run for another two weeks.

[Shot]

Seeing lots of small water trucks in the area filling tanks. Water trucks just tapped a new spot, they almost dried up the other, that one down to a few cm of muck. The new one down at least 1 m in the past week. Roads are dirty. Storm drains stink. Can't wait for a good drenching.

[LivinginKata]

Just right now talking with my wife about the water supply problem. We have not had one drop of government water in Patong for a full 3 months on our hillside property. Now our water truck driver is having trouble filling up with water as all the wells are very low. Oh well, just no town planning, just build like crazy and worry about water, electric, sewage systems later on. As my wife says, don't worry until it happens .... doh

[EBlair48]

I will say the resevoirs around here have one hell of a lot a water. The island's biggest lake in Manic is humongous and would probably take three years of no rain to run it down to nothing.

Neighbor kids set up another fire tonight, then left it going. Jaysus, HFC - cannot believe the stupidity, vapid, no frontal lobe, no consequence of action stupidity- it could get out of control so easily. They just murmur " stupid farang" when I try to tell them how dangerous it is for the entire neighborhod.

Hope they burn to death in their beds tonight !! Well OK, kinda harsh- maybe just asphixiate first, painlessly , well no... cough a bit at least, then burn to a lean no- fat bacon crisp.

Brats !!

Edited March 2, 2014 by EBlair48

[Guest]

I finally got water fill up to my tanks, first time in 10 months. The fillup price had tripled from previous 450B to 1500B today.

[LivinginKata]

The heat is brutal. This water shortage is only going to get worse.

[nedkellylives]

Has not rained where we live for 62 days 15 hours 46 minutes and 16 seconds Approximately

[Guest]

I'm thinking of setting up my portable air-con again, the fan doesn't seem to do the trick anymore. It's more difficult to get sleep in the nights when it's too hot.

At least 5 large plants in the front of my house have decided to give up and have snapped leaving only the roots to the ground.

Dry leaves everywhere and I can not burn them as it could spread to surroundings.

@nedkelly: Thanks for the estimate. That was pleasingly accurate.

[stevehaigh]

i'm not bothering to try keep my garden alive at the moment, better save water for the house.

at least the evening gives us a bit of a break but i don't even want to go outside in the afternoon. it reminds me of that movie Riddick when the sun comes over the horizon and everything that isn't rock just buns to crisp immedidately

[EBlair48]

Three months, one week three days 14 hours, 37 seconds,- two misty drops not drops but....rain quarks

Had a conversation with a local guy who has a hardware store. He told me, and I'll tell you I got super cold shivers, that the last time it was like this was before the tsunami, he claimed that prior to the event, there was about 5 months of drought that year.

You've heard of area 51- well say hello to case 20

http://www.agu.org/books/sp/v032/SP032p0093/index.shtml

Whoops link is non performing well Ok make up something

[EBlair48]

I finally got water fill up to my tanks, first time in 10 months. The fillup price had tripled from previous 450B to 1500B today.

Water, it's the new oil. Plan accordingly

[phuketsub]

Three months, one week three days 14 hours, 37 seconds,- two misty drops not drops but....rain quarks

Had a conversation with a local guy who has a hardware store. He told me, and I'll tell you I got super cold shivers, that the last time it was like this was before the tsunami, he claimed that prior to the event, there was about 5 months of drought that year.

You've heard of area 51- well say hello to case 20

http://www.agu.org/books/sp/v032/SP032p0093/index.shtml

Whoops link is non performing well Ok make up something

It is indeed dry, but I don't think it is time to freak out about it.

The last time we had an extended drought like this was after the tsunami, not before it. Back then we also had problems with saltwater intrusion into wells. What we didn't have was a high season for tourism, so demand for water was down.

A look at the TMD forecast calls for 'Thunder Showers' on Thursday:

(http://www.tmd.go.th/en/province.php?id=75)

As a hydrologist by training, I would love to know what that is based on...

Thus far there have been no serious supply disruptions in Rassada (but on Phuket Town Water supply)

[stevehaigh]

A look at the TMD forecast calls for 'Thunder Showers' on Thursday:

(http://www.tmd.go.th/en/province.php?id=75)

partly cloudy today! did anyone at TMD look out of the window recently.

windguru is showing increasing clouds and sprinkles of rain towards the weekend. hopefully that's a sign that things are changing for the better finally.

Edited March 11, 2014 by stevehaigh

[Valentine]

I seem to recall a short burst of rain in Jan so at least 2 months. El Nino is in the ascendancy & I believe already having an effect as large scale drought in Australia plus now seeing drought affected areas in Thailand.

[stevenl]

Three months, one week three days 14 hours, 37 seconds,- two misty drops not drops but....rain quarks

Had a conversation with a local guy who has a hardware store. He told me, and I'll tell you I got super cold shivers, that the last time it was like this was before the tsunami, he claimed that prior to the event, there was about 5 months of drought that year.

You've heard of area 51- well say hello to case 20

http://www.agu.org/books/sp/v032/SP032p0093/index.shtml

Whoops link is non performing well Ok make up something

How anybody can make a connection between this drought and a fabricated drought before the tsunami followed by the tsunami really is beyond me.

Edited March 11, 2014 by stevenl

[keestha]

Khao Lak / day before yesterday, drove the car through massive black smoke, fire somewhere, probably just grass. Today again saw a fire brigade car, lights flashing. Not very reassuring the fire brigade has to come from Takua Pa, 30 km from here. The waterfalls only have a trickle of water. Getting worried about water supply, big hotels pulling water massively, many of them using deep wells, being not connected to the public water system, and still full blown high season tourist quantity. Last time I witnessed a similar situation here was in 2001.

Edited March 11, 2014 by keestha

[EBlair48]

Really thought it was going to pour yesterday, about 75 % grey cloud coverage, blustery winds shifting in from the west, ( here come the rip tides) but about an hours later, nada, more blue skies and super dry humidity at 60%. The lack of humidity is the only thing that makes living without AC bearable.

Prolonged drought... not to worry, we can always just drill down a thousand kilometers. I was just reading a trashy novel written a few years ago that had this very scenario...

I always thought that hypothesis about about comets bringing water to Earth just .. well, didn't hold water.

http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/theres-an-ocean-deep-inside-the-earth-mb-test

[snippet]

In what sounds like a chapter from Journey to the Centre of the Earth, the chemical makeup of a tiny, extremely rare gemstone has made researchers think there's a massive water reservoir hundreds of miles under the earth....

....The earth’s crust, including the deepest parts of the oceans, reach depths of roughly 100 kilometres. From there, the upper mantle takes up about another 300 kilometres. Between there and the lower mantle is where this piece of ringwoodite was originally from – an area between 410 and 660 kilometres beneath the earth’s surface known as the “transition zone.”

[Guest]

Update from the norht-east. Just got few drops of rain. Half of the sky is blue with sun shining. There is however some promising looking dark clouds with thunderstorm sounds coming from the east.

[LivinginKata]

Quite a bit of cloud over Kata, but white clouds

[EBlair48]

In mid west area.

just got the first rain in 3 months and two weeks. - sprinkled for about four minutes. Did just hear a bit of thunder and there is considerable grey cloud cover- so...however, humidity is only at 65% - temp 33 degrees

[Guest]

Now it's definitely getting cooler with occasional winds, which come before the heavy rain. Let's try if a bit of rain dance would help

[Guest]

One can always trust AC/DC. Real rain now. It also seems that the incoming rain area is at least few kilometers wide. I can not even see Koh Naka Yai anymore, which is about 4-5km from my home.

[Old Croc]

Getting a shower in Chalong now.

[stevenl]

A bit of rain in Kata now

[keestha]

Big rain front apparently, just had 5 minutes of rain in Khao Lak.

[NomadJoe]

Big rain coming in from the east now at Cape Panwa.

[LivinginKata]

Yes, about 10 drops of rain in Kata, and the skies are getting darker as i write. Wife happy the plants are getting water.

Oooops - as i write the rain started chucking it down.

[Shot]

Sprinkling in Kamala................................................Well, it was.

[phuketsub]

Pouring in Rassada now, with immediate electrical surges and sporadic interruption of internet services...

[bubblegum]

10 second heavy rain in Rawai

update; still raining

Edited March 15, 2014 by bubblegum