Weather- September 2010

[johnw]

Yes there was at least one death here so far in Nova Scotia.  

Eating at a friend's outdoors last night it was 20c at 10pm and we were all in sweaters and feeling quite chilled.  Could it be we were getting acclimatized?  The humidity has dropped considerably with its passing.

Yes 30 metre waves off the coast near Hfx.  I found this on yoube:

   

The sound of the wind of a hurricane is unbelievable.

john  

[johnw]

Lesley - The last thing we heard before the tv went dead was that Christchurch was to get exactly the same weather as here the night after the quake - 130km/hr. wind +75 mm rain.  I hope that didn't materialize as those damaged buildings will have been obliterated.  I can't seem to find any indication it happened.

Felt like a week of Götterdämmerung - hurricanes, oil rig explosions, mine collapses, landslides, floods, earthquakes, plane crashes and wild fires.  I hope people are not getting as they say, "donation" weary.  

Glad to hear you're safe.

johnw

[Lesley Cox]

The wind in Christchurch was less than expected fortunately and I'm not sure if the rain came at all, through it will at some stage. The equinox is a nasty thing here with weeks of rain, gales and the like so it's a matter of how much repair can be done in the time. I think all the damaged brick buildings will have to be demolished and some of the stone as well. Wooden buildings seemed to fare best.

We had trees down last night but not much other damage.

As to "donation weary" there comes a time when one just can't any more but so far as Christchurch is concerned, we have the Earthquake Commission (used to be Earthquake and War Damage Comm) and that will fund most of the damage and clean up. PM said it has $15 billion available for claims up to $100,000 when private insurance kicks in. The earthquake is expected to use up about 2 billion, so plenty for other disasters when and if.

[johnw]

Lesley - How long will it take to repair the severed sewer, water and gas lines? It will be a huge undertaking.

johnw

[fermi de Sousa]

... but there are plenty Forum Friends in  Victoria in Australia where there is very bad flooding....

Fortunately we are only halfway down the valley, but the river is a lot closer than it used to be!


The above is a pic of the bottom of our street and the Campaspe River is not usually visible from this spot!
We had to drive through quite a lot of water over the roads on Saturday but it had all receded by this morning (in this part of central Vic). There is still the threat of more flooding today in other parts.
We only suffered a little water damage when a torrent must've come from the overflowing gutters to pour down our driveway and through part of the garden gouging some furrows through our sandbeds. We no longer have a "dry" creekbed and "Snake Gully" is now "Snake Lake"!
We're expecting a locust plague later this month!http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2010/s3001111.htm
cheers
fermi

[Kees Green]

Christchurch was lucky Dunedin got 175kph winds so not sure exactly how they missed out.

[Maggi Young]

A reminder that there is also this thread on the NZ erathquake, in case anyone reading the weather page missed it: http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=5979.0

[Anthony Darby]

Yes there was at least one death here so far in Nova Scotia.  

Eating at a friend's outdoors last night it was 20c at 10pm and we were all in sweaters and feeling quite chilled.  Could it be we were getting acclimatized?  The humidity has dropped considerably with its passing.

Yes 30 metre waves off the coast near Hfx.  I found this on yoube:

   

The sound of the wind of a hurricane is unbelievable.

john  

20^oC at 10 p.m.! Positively balmy. That is T-shirt and shorts temperature here. I wish we could have that during the day!

[Maggi Young]

20oC at 10 p.m.! Positively balmy. That is T-shirt and shorts temperature here. I wish we could have that during the day!

 Fair enough, but it wouldn't be quite so attractive a proposition if the price for that was to be 30metre waves at the coast.... though perhaps living inland  that doesn't  come into your reckoning.

[TheOnionMan]

Any idiot could have predicted the landfall would be well east of what was predicted what with another low pressure system coming in from the west.  It came ashore near Lunenburg just 100km south of here and we closely missed the eye here. In typical fashion as the Hurricane passed by Cape Cod CNN reported it has now gone out to sea so everyone it out of danger, apparently their map for Atlantic Canada still reads "here bee wilde beestes". 

johnw

Sorry to see of all of the damage and devastation from various storms and catastrophic events around the globe; it does seem as if lots of adversities happening at once.

John, your follow-up posting is what I feared as I was tracking Earl, that it was going to make landfall in Nova Scotia.  I share your sentiment about the dunderheads at CNN weather, or for that matter, American news outlet in general... it seems that our interest is only concerned about American soil, not beyond it.  Watching the weather reports tracking Hurricane Earl on cable (the Weather Channel), with constant visual maps showing the Northeastern USA region, they consistently fail to mention these huge chunks of land that wrap around and conjoin Maine along the Atlantic Coast, namely New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, Canada... it's as if they don't exist and have no name.  And I think to myself, hey people at the weather news station, at least do a small exercise to educate us geography-challenged Americans, and please say the names of these mysterious land masses where Hurricane Earl is going to hit. 

Not once, over several days and many hours watching the weather on a variety of TV stations, did I see New Brunswick and Nova Scotia ever get mentioned .  With our grade schools not even teaching geography anymore (apparently a luxury item, one of the first things cut when schools here were facing budgetary funding cuts), and the news reporting so dumbed-down to ignore massive land areas adjacent to our own, no wonder we have such a reputation of being geographically ignorant.  Map uploaded, showing how the eastern Canadian provinces dwarf the New England States in size, but are intrinsically conjoined.

[johnw]

Mark - I have to say I was watching one Boston Channel which wished "our friends in the Maritimes" the best of luck with the approach of the Hurricane and its potential landfall there. Boston and Halifax have traditionally been close, they had a supply train entroute to Hfx within hours of the famous Explosion here and rebuilt an entire section of the city known as the Hydrostone.

The CBC Newsworld Channel should be taken to task for their sloppy coverage.  They had reporters in Yarmouth and Pubnico and interview the latter as if it were to make landfall there (which a few hours before it was to). All the while their super-imposed map was showing the eye riding south and east of Pubnico and head north eastwards.  Their scroll bar at the same time was warning Digby as the landfall.  The local CBC Radio Station as usual had the best and most factual coverage and pre-empted all programmes until about 3pm.

Did you get any needed rain?

johnw

[TheOnionMan]

Did you get any needed rain?

johnw

Got only a trace of rain from Earl; the ground remains completely dry under trees and shrubs.  Thankfully, a west-to-east cold front (a stealth or quiet front; e.g. no rain nor clouds associated with it, just an air mass) pushed out the hot humid air and it's been cool and dry since then.  All three days after the storm, picture perfect weather, today's high is 77 F, (25 C) sunny, dry and breezy. 50% chance of rain showers predicted for Wednesday, but I'm not counting on it.

[Anthony Darby]

We seem to have some severe gusting here tonight. Put everything movable away.

[Lesley Cox]

Thanks for that map Mark. I hadn't realized how close NB and NS were to the USA. In fact, they were lucky (unlucky?) not to be included at all.

John I imagine the repairing of water, gas and sewer lines will take months. Not something I'm up in at all of course but the damage is so widespread and much is yet undiscovered, or only found out by accident. Many streets are having eruptions of mud with no warning, where the subsoil is suddenly breaking through already cracked pavement. One woman in Kaiapoi fell into a hole outside her door and the apparently solid surface suddenly liquified and within seconds she was buried to her neckline in liquid mud. Her husband was able to get her out but with great difficulty. It really frightens me to see little kids playing in the crevices that have appeared in so many streets. I hadn't thought, until last night's TV, how it would affect children, assuming they'd be happy enough with Mum and Dad doing what was required but some were really deeply shocked and terrified, but trying to be brave and not cry for the TV cameras. Some others seem to take it all as an opportunity for new games and adventures.

Chch had more aftershocks in the night, one of 5.2, then two more of 5.4 in quick succession. The airport was closed down for a time. I can imagine that people will never go to bed again, without fearing what might happen in the night.

NZAGS Spring show is to go ahead though, on 18th and 19th Sept. The Hort Soc hall where it is held is undamaged.

Kees, yes, we did get some good wind didn't we? and it teamed here all day as well but I'm glad Chch apparently missed out.

[angie]

We seem to have some severe gusting here tonight. Put everything movable away.

Wish I had Anthony, lost some pots last night and it just as windy today, I suppose being so near the coast is always worse. Away back in my polytunnel where at least I am not blown away...pity I couldn't cover my whole garden in a giant polytunnel 

Angie