The Weather
- Thread starter Bigun
- Start date
Flash floods along the coast here, thankfully I live inland now, but I heard some people from my hometown on the radio this morning say that the rainfall was "quite hefty", well, that is saying something extreme to me. I have to ask my sister how she's doing, the rivers have apparently multiplied in the area, and that is something I'd never thought would be possible.
I really hope going from lots of minus C and dry snow to +10c in 24hrs will not wake up nature and not only overfill the hydro dams but also severely limit the fill-grade later in spring... Electric power may get cheaper in the short run, but may get really expensive come this summer (if we get to experience summer...)
I really hope going from lots of minus C and dry snow to +10c in 24hrs will not wake up nature and not only overfill the hydro dams but also severely limit the fill-grade later in spring... Electric power may get cheaper in the short run, but may get really expensive come this summer (if we get to experience summer...)
We got 670mm or rain in about 5-6 hrs on Friday. there was a flash flood during the night; the water came from completely different direction to how it normally floods; simply because it was SO MUCH water. I have never experienced rain like that and I live in the tropics in eastern Australia. its basically double the largest amount I can remember being in; that was just over 300mm.
That's absolutely insane, 670mm!
The weather is not quite that bad in the Sunnmøre region, but here's a very nice webcam (not far from my sister) that gives a quick recap of the last 24 hrs, from 36cm snow in most of the region, and much more up high, to bare ground in no time at all.
https://www.windy.com/nb/-Nettkamer...lemsfjellet/webcams/1488711395?62.441,4.834,8
Edit:
Click on the 30 day lapse on a camera close to where I live, much more stable.
https://www.windy.com/nb/-Nettkamera/Norway/Viken/Lien/Myllabakken/webcams/1325001245?60.245,8.915,8
The weather is not quite that bad in the Sunnmøre region, but here's a very nice webcam (not far from my sister) that gives a quick recap of the last 24 hrs, from 36cm snow in most of the region, and much more up high, to bare ground in no time at all.
https://www.windy.com/nb/-Nettkamer...lemsfjellet/webcams/1488711395?62.441,4.834,8
Edit:
Click on the 30 day lapse on a camera close to where I live, much more stable.
https://www.windy.com/nb/-Nettkamera/Norway/Viken/Lien/Myllabakken/webcams/1325001245?60.245,8.915,8
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Holy cow. That's terrifying! It must have been like living directly under a waterfall. I'm glad you're okay.
I read Nevil Shute's "In The Wet" as a boy, so I'm familiar with the idea that Queensland, in particular, could be a very wet place indeed. But 670 mm (26 3/8 inches for our American friends) in 6 hours? That is almost unbelievable. Yikes!
Australia has been at the forefront of extreme-weather disasters for some years now. I've lost count of the number of disastrous floods and wildfires and heat-waves and droughts Down Under that I've read about in the last few years.
One of the news stories I do remember, is that in 2018, it got so hot around Sydney, Australia, that fruit-bats hanging in trees were overheating, suffering heat-stroke, losing consciousness, and falling to the ground to die by the thousands. ( https://www.dw.com/en/australia-heat-wave-brain-frying-bats/a-42078045 )
It's known that bats evolved more than 50 million years ago, maybe as far back as 66 million years. Australia's bats have lived there for millions of years, meaning they are well adapted to any normal weather they would encounter. Just how extreme does the heat have to get, to give thousands of bats fatal heat-stroke?
It seems 2021 was the year British Columbia, Canada, joined Australia on the front pages of world news media when it comes to extreme weather events.
The picture shows one of our highways, dissolved and washed away by intense flooding in mid November, 2021, near Lytton, BC. The same city that hit 49.6 Celsius in the summer of 2021, then burst into flames and more or less wiped itself off the map. If there had been any bats hanging in trees in Lytton, BC, they would have overheated and fallen to the ground to die, too.
-Gnobuddy
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Thanks @Gnobuddy, It was pretty much exactly like living under a waterfall. 670mm was a 24hr reporting total, but by my reckoning about 80-90% of that would have been in 5-6hrs of that 24. In fact it was SO loud, I did not notice what I found out in the morning was happening outside my window. My dwelling is thankfully still on the downward slope of the hill, so for the most part the water just rushed through after causing some trouble up in the garage (my wood workshop). It unfortunately destroyed the speaker baffles i'd been working on and left my power tools full of water. I'm not really too concerned about them except for the new Makita Router, as they are for the most part fairly old, with no ICs inside, so they will be fine after drying out I hope. The router I would think now has quite a lot of electronics inside for PWM and speed control and it also ended up with a lot of wet MDF dust inside. I only just bought the bloody thing. thankfully although not far off final assembly, I had not started assembling them with the drivers and active electronics; those all remain down here with me in my electronics workshop.
But!! although on the downward slope, i'm not that far from the bottom of the valley. there is not normally a river here, rather a small creek about 200m away, but we woke up to find that there was a newly formed river here ... it reached about 50-100mm from my floor level. trees, poor green tree frogs, massive old forest bromeliads everywhere. a large dead tree that one of my neighbours 2 houses up used to form part of a raised garden bed was just completely washed away and apparently just missed my place, as it was lodged not far away ...
Wow 49C is pretty significant, even by our standards. 45C and 85% humidity is not unusual here though ... I remember that story about the 'bats' (soz, pet peeve, fruit bats are not technically bats) I was actually living down in Sydney at that time.
A small news story reporting on this flood event my area
But!! although on the downward slope, i'm not that far from the bottom of the valley. there is not normally a river here, rather a small creek about 200m away, but we woke up to find that there was a newly formed river here ... it reached about 50-100mm from my floor level. trees, poor green tree frogs, massive old forest bromeliads everywhere. a large dead tree that one of my neighbours 2 houses up used to form part of a raised garden bed was just completely washed away and apparently just missed my place, as it was lodged not far away ...
Wow 49C is pretty significant, even by our standards. 45C and 85% humidity is not unusual here though ... I remember that story about the 'bats' (soz, pet peeve, fruit bats are not technically bats) I was actually living down in Sydney at that time.
A small news story reporting on this flood event my area
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On a more happy note, this event will have been very good for the frog population; which was already booming of late, after recovering from cane toad infestation of the 80's. the place is usually alive with cicadas, birdsong, crickets and some frogs. last night I found myself very entertained b a family of tree frogs hunting bugs on the outside of my office window.
Well, I wouldnt say they are necessarily 'under control' but the situation is not nearly as bad as it used to be and the frogs have definitely bounced back. I still come across quite a few toads, but there is definitely more frogs than toads. where I live, there are sugar cane farms all around, so if they were going to be anywhere; it would be here. Our control methods, both here and border control/department of agriculture, appear to have worked reasonably well. it didnt happen quickly though; its only been say the last 10 years where i've noticed they have rebounded. Perhaps i'll ask one of the farmers down the road if thats his experience too. That may not be the case further north in far north QLD. I'm still only in southern/central QLD coast.
So I guess I wont be doing that.Having been flooded, (Just under 2M of muddy water) treating the tools by rinsing the mud out with clean water and then drying them quickly is usually enough. WD40 was actually made to be sprayed on wet steel to prevent rusting. Really neat to spray it on and watch the water fall off.
Unfortunately I would not spray it on enameled electrical wiring in a hand tool as it may long term damage the insulation.
You might need to replace the bearings in your tools. Absolutely replace the bearings in your router. There will be numbers etched on the bearings to identify them. All you will need is a screwdriver. You may also want to replace the foam pad under the sandpaper.
All parts are easily found on the WWW today.
Any questions PM me.
Unfortunately I would not spray it on enameled electrical wiring in a hand tool as it may long term damage the insulation.
You might need to replace the bearings in your tools. Absolutely replace the bearings in your router. There will be numbers etched on the bearings to identify them. All you will need is a screwdriver. You may also want to replace the foam pad under the sandpaper.
All parts are easily found on the WWW today.
Any questions PM me.
Thanks Simon. I have washed out all but the router and dried them already, will see how those ones work. I wanted to wait and do a bit of research about the router before disassembling it and perhaps giving it a scrub with mildly soapy water->distilled water->IPA and wanted to get enough rice and baking soda for afterwards (as well as recovering from the slight jitters/cooked feeling I have from the 3rd pfizer booster I got on Friday) I was planning to do that on Monday, so your post is much appreciated. Your offer of assistance by PM is much appreciated. i'll see how I go.
I've used Electronics cleaning spray quite a lot, and it works well after having used distilled water for sensitive electronics. Do NOT use "Electro cleaner spray" it is a VERY different spray and intended to improve electric conductivity! Must be Electronic cleaner spray, not Electro cleaner spray.
We used to buy barrels full of electronic cleaning agents when I worked in a lab environment, amazing what can be recovered if you only have the means to do so.
We used to buy barrels full of electronic cleaning agents when I worked in a lab environment, amazing what can be recovered if you only have the means to do so.
Oh, they're bats all right. That amazing wing - a modified mammal paw, with the thumb turned into a hook, and the other four fingers elongated and carrying the wing membrane - only evolved once in our planets history. You see that skeletal structure on an animal, you know for sure it's a bat.
Years ago I found a dead fruit-bat on the ground, under the power lines that had electrocuted it. Overcoming my reluctance to touch the corpse, I picked it up and examined the wing. What an amazing feat of engineering it is!
Here's a good reference on the scientific classification of bats: https://www.bats.org.uk/about-bats/what-are-bats/classifying-bats
Pterosaurs have an entirely different skeletal wing structure, with a single elongated finger carrying the wing membrane, rather than four fingers.
And birds have yet another wing skeletal structure. Two of the original five fingers inherited from dinosaurs are gone, and the remaining three are shortened, re-shaped, and carry the wing feathers that make up the flight surface.
The attached images shows all three types of wings.
-Gnobuddy
