For the past 20 years you could set your watch on the monsoons, the middle of May it would start with the exception of the El Nino Phenomenon, which they (The old Pinoy Guy at the end of my road) says will occur about every seven years.
Every morning I check the local PAGASA report and it tells me Temp. 33 degrees, partly cloudy and thunder! Please note: Not lightning or rain, but thunder. The odd part is they (PAGASA) are right, the clouds form all day around the mountain and the rumbling begins, not a sharp crack but a slow rumbling raising to a crescendo, and then starting again for hours at a time. Now all that does is start the dog army to barking, like with the fireworks on New Year’s Eve, but so far, absolutely, positively, no rain at all. Now I know there the Veterans got the name “Rolling Thunder” for the motorcycle ride to Washington DC every year.
The smart TV talking heads say: “Whether or not the Philippines is hit by El Niño—although it more than likely will be—it should still prepare for drought in the year ahead.” My son-in-law Chris is waiting for the rain to fill his one hectare tilapia fish pond and to plant 10 hectares of rice this season. The Mango crop came in with no problem, and his eggplants and his other vegetable crops, and the pigs are doing just fine. But my poor granddaughter is working her fingers to the bone on the farm. (Yeah right!)
The pump on my Koi fish pond stopped working, so I thought the rain will oxygenate the pond and I can replace the pump in a few months. Who is going to sit in the rain and watch the waterfall? Well depending on the amount of beer, I might! But now it looks like along with the new tent top, I’ll be replacing the pump.
When or if the rain starts, all will burst out green once more, pixies will be dancing in the wild flowers and more important that dark gray car I bought won’t be covered with dust very morning. See how I find the good in everything. No “Negative Nick” writing this article. The first rain I will be out on my roof in shorts letting the rain soak me, the kids in the purok will be running up and down my street soaking wet in their school clothes and laughing at the same time.
Thanks to the article I wrote (Thanks for Telling Me ) Mayang has promised to tell me when the Bamboo Telegraph hints at any typhoons coming our way I’ll be warned. Okay typhoons are the downside of the monsoonal season, but I need to know so I can strike down her tents in time, and not launch them into the upper atmosphere like weather balloons.
Now Mega Manila 31 May 2015 flooded with just 7 hours of rain, the main Dam/reservoir is dangerously low on water affecting the city’s water supply, and yet if Manila gets 30 minutes of rain it still floods but they won’t have to use any water to keep the grasses green and I guess that’s a blessing
Then last Saturday night it happened, the lightning was flashing off my neighbors mango tree, thunder was blasting just outside of my bedroom window, it woke me up. Well the power went off and the lack of Air/Con was what really woke me. But did it rain, well my yard was damp and there was a small puddle on my carport roof. But not the frog choking gully washing torrential rain that flooded Davao last week and they don’t even have a rainy season. It’s not for me to figure out; my responsibility is to keep my generator full of fuel.
I E-mailed Al Gore to see what information he had on my situation, he wrote back and said I was suffering from Global Drying. I’ll just wait until the rain starts and then I will break into that song….Rain drops keep falling on my head, have a refreshing beer and wait for it to stop raining. The cycle continues.
Where do they get the water for the SMB?? Just think if that dried up lol lol.
John J.
I have an old 300 feet deep well that I’ve not needed for a few years, If San Miguel needs the water I’ll donate mine.
Hi Paul,
Here in Cebu we usually have two seasons, wet and dry. It used to be that by June 1st the first hard rain would signal the start of the rainy season here. I think that the El Nino phenomenon is in place here too. It has been wicked hot through May, usually the hottest month anyway, but this heat has continued up to now in June too. On a serious note, farmers have been losing early corn crops along with other vegetables in many areas.
Thunder has been a big tease for us here lately too. The past few mornings seemed to have lightened up some heat wise, so hopefully a change is coming.
Two days ago in the afternoon, a huge but short downpour hit out of nowhere, and we thought that we were finally free! No such luck as thunder returned with no further rain. At least that was a start.
Speaking of frogs, a small frog had been using our dog’s dish for a swimming pool every night, but by now he’s a giant frog who can hardly fit! He keeps coming though.
During super typhoon Yolanda our towns were affected along our coastline, but not to the extent of other further north towns, Ruby was a long pretty scary typhoon last year during rainy season, but blessedly nowhere as destructive.
In spite of this danger, I still prefer the cooler rainy season here in Cebu over the dry season, as it USUALLY brings sunny days with short daily bursts of heavy breezes and rain at our place.
Until this happens I guess we’ll just follow Phil Collins’s song “I Wish it Would Rain Down” until relief shows up.:)
Queenie
Queeniebee:
All we can do is wait it out, as I mentioned my son-in-law is late planting his rice, and that will throw the years schedule up in the air. I feel for all farmers as they can’t survive unless the rain comes soon. I’m about tired of nothing but thunder. I want those rainy days that knock out the satellite TV and the balmy breezes that follow. Curse that Al Gore for messing with our seasons!!!
Just wash your car Paul! Whenever I give mine a bath a muddy rainshower is sure to follow.
Tony;
In the past that was so true, now I get dust if I wash the car. Or should I say; if the guys at Car Spa wash the car.
so i’ll make sure i down visit in May…
SirDemilo Brewer;
To enjoy the rain or miss the rain?
Paul –
I wouldn’t mind being in the Philippines during a typhoon, if I were traveling solo. There’s just something about a torrential downpour in the tropics that brings out the child in me. I was in Zambales with my Mom for the entire month of May 2000, when typhoon Biring hit. It rained 9 straight days, and you guessed it. I was out there in shorts in the backyard full of fruit plants and hanging orchids soaking it all in, just like when I was a kid growing up in Salaza. Back then, barrio kids took baths in the rain.
John Reyes;
I’m with you during torrential rain, but typhoons and hurricanes not so much as I’m light (165 LBS) But I also love getting wet walking around with folks thinking I’m odd the kids still understand as they come with me. But you’re right, it is fun.
Paul, John,
I agree if it were just the rain, but when it feels like the roof is going to blow off like it did last July when Typhoon Glenda hit us directly, that was not fun lol.
PapaDuck;
I believe John was talking about the rain that lingers after the big blow has passed. Or I hope so….(lol)
Global drying? !
Denzil Browne
If the earth heats up or gets to cold they call it global warming, so a lack of moister could only be Global Drying!
Denzil Browne
That comment caught me at a loss for words…..
Paul,
It seems that Mindanao is now experiencing the monsoon weather regularity that I saw when I lived in Luzon (A.C.) from 2003-2008. You get up in the morning here and it is sunny and bright. By 2 o’clock the clouds are rolling over the mountains, and by 3 or 4 o’clock we have ourselves either a steady downpour or rain that lasts for a couple hours then it clears out again overnight.
When I want a detailed outlook for the weather trends these days I don’t visit the PAGASA website anymore. I use http://weather.com.ph/news. They give much better outlook and trends than PAGASA does. Sometimes I think PAGASA is more interested in being right than being accurate. Their generic forecast “Partly cloudy to cloudy skies with a chance of showers or thunderstorms” pretty much covers every conceivable weather condition here in the Philippines except typhoons. Hehehe.
TagumCity Tim
Tagum City Tim;
You hit the nail on the head with PAGASA’s forecasting, and if it is a typhoon everyone will be hit by it and it will be a super storm, that way if you get nothing you’re happy and whomever gets hit they can say they called it.
Denzil Browne
Now I understand the facebook stickers do not show up on LiP
Excellent article Paul. Can’t wait to get to the Philippines in August and feel the rain again.
Denzil Browne;
I was paid off on a ship in Dubai it was 42 degrees on the way to the airport, when I landed in Manila I rushed outside to stand in the cool refreshing rain. My Van driver wanted me dry before he took me to my house. Have a safe trip over.
It’s a rainy Monday here in Chicago as we await for what could be the final match for the Blackhawks. So setting aside that hockey hysteria, today is a rare occasion that my two worlds–the Chicago and Manila–share same weather. In fact, today seems to approximate Manila rainy day weather, flood threat and all. But it is not. Rainy days in Manila creates a different mood that’s hard to put. Does it feel like it washes the grime of the city? Maybe so. You can also feel its difference when you go to the wet market. There are food items that are available only this season. And if there are none to buy because floods hampered the delivery of food, strangely, dried fried fish seems to taste better on a rainy morning. Rain here, on the other hand, just brings rain. Here, rain only lasts for hours. It may stop and continue again but it has never gone for more than 24 hours. Unlike in Manila that rain has known to happen for nine days!
Roy Villa;
I can feel the homesickness in your comment, Manila rain is a cleansing rain, but do to failing infrastructure it also causes flooding. As a Kano I’ll change location when my ladies start cooking the dried salty fish, but I won’t say a word as they love them so much I’d be a fool to try and change that habit. As I explained to my wife; “It’s your house too, cook those fish.
Heeey Roy!
Is that you pa la?You’re back writing after so long! Please keep writing–I so missed your many insights!
Queenie
Hi Paul, coming from England I could say I know all about rain lol but I would
Like to see some now just to cool things down, I wash the car next day covered
In dust , here in Manila plenty of clouds but not much rain ,Derek in pasig .
Derik;
Pasig must be high ground as the news is showing flooding in Mega Manila. But the dusty cars are easy I borrow my wife’s feather duster and then the 80 KLM drive to Subic blows the rest off. There is always a way!!!
@Paul,
Thank goodness the clouds have been appearing for the past weeks. The heat has been really something, even here on the higher elevation of Antipolo. I am close to breaking out that Palawan bamboo rainmaker.
However, the downside to the rain is that there are times that when it rains, it pours. And then there are the typhoons, which can get scary here in Antipolo. Plus, the supertyphoons, which I noticed have been becoming more frequent since Haiyan. Typhoons are meant to be respected.
I’m glad I am no longer a regular journalist because I had to go to work, rain or shine, and especially if there is a typhoon because people needed the news.
I actually got used to being out in a typhoon because I just viewed it as work that I signed up for. But when a tree branch once crashed onto the road near my car on the way to work, I got scared.
Norman Sison;
I have lived in hurricane and typhoon parts of the earth for most of my adult life. In the Caribbean I went through the category 5 storm Hugo, which destroyed my house and Night Club then sunk my sailboat and wind damaged my condo. (I was miffed!)
At sea in the Navy and later as a Merchant Seaman I’ve was hit by one once at sea, and we never forgave the captain, but on other ships we out ran them the next 7 times. Respect for storms, like you, I have it for them, as a matter of we sailed on the edge of a cyclone off the coast of India.
But the rain I love, I live on the steps of a mountain here in Bataan, on high ground and since water is affected by gravity (Thank you Sir Isaac Newton) it flows past me to the rice fields below. Well that is what was supposed to happen, but we’re still waiting! (lol)
Stat dry Sir, and thank you for your comment. As for you getting scared in a storm, I’ll freely admit that I was too when it happen to me..
Paul,
Guess what. Yesterday I broke out the Palawan bamboo rainmaker. I thought, “What the heck.” And it rained yesterday, and now tonight it’s pouring. That thing must’ve worked. Now I am loving the cool Antipolo evening.
And hey, please don’t call me “sir”. Norman or Norm will do. I, on the other hand, should call you Chief, Navy-style. (I did consider joining the US Navy in the late 1980s and taking up a job at Subic.)
Norm; (Sir) lol
Your rain Bamboo Rainmaker sticks worked in Bataan too, the sky open up and the rain poured down, I’m speaking of frog choking rain that I talked about in the article. I was in the streets soaking wet until I saw the lightening then I smartened up and went in. But the happy noise from the kids on the way home from school for lunch made the wait worthwhile (Few uniforms were worn back to class after lunch, “Smart kids”!!!)
If your life turned out in a way that pleases you today, then maybe the Navy wasn’t for you. It’s funny how things work out. A friend asked if I could go back and change something in my past, what would it be?
My answer; “Absolutely nothing, as it might alter the life I live today.”