As I type this, it is mid-morning on Thursday here in the Philippines. We have been experiencing unusual weather here in Davao for a while now, maybe 2 or 3 weeks. As Rusty wrote yesterday, it has been quite cool here in the Philippines, and that includes Davao City. I’m not really writing an article about the weather today, though, although the weather is part of the story I want to tell you.
Part of our unusual weather here in Davao is that it started raining yesterday morning (Wednesday), and it has been raining steadily ever since then. It is unusual to have that kind of rain here in Davao. Usually we have thunderstorms at night. Maybe 15 minutes to an hour of very heavy rain, not much more than that. However, it has been raining steadily for 24 hours now. The rain has not been that heavy, though, just steady.
Well, at about 9am, one of our kids sent a text message to Feyma, asking if somebody could pick them up at school, because school was cancelled. “What?” I asked Feyma, “Why did they cancel school?” She said that she was not sure. When the kids got home, I asked them why the classes had been cancelled. “Rain” my son told me. Rain? I can’t believe that classes would be cancelled for rain! Aaron, my son told me that they were worried about flooding, but I didn’t see any flooding anywhere. I asked if there was flooding at Ateneo, the school they attend. He said there was none!
This is not the first time that school was cancelled for a crazy reason like this! A year or two ago, I remember one time when school was cancelled because of a typhoon. The typhoon was in Luzon, about 800 miles from here, and headed in the opposite direction from us! We don’t get typhoons here in Davao, we are south of the typhoon belt. So, why did they cancel school? Well, in my opinion, it was a convenient day off.
Now, don’t get me wrong. If you go look at almost any news site on the Internet, you will find that there is some bad flooding in Mindanao. That is far north of us, though in places like Butuan, Gingoog and Cagayan de Oro, more than 100 miles from Davao. The weather here in Davao has been dry up until yesterday. Oh sure we have had showers from time to time, but not out of the ordinary, in my opinion. Certainly nothing to stop school over!
You know, though, as Rusty talked about yesterday, and as I said at the beginning of this article, it has been uncharacteristically cold here! I know that “cold” and “Philippines” don’t normally belong in the same article, but I’m really telling you the truth! We have not even been running the air conditioning for a long time now, just keeping the windows open. Even just opening the windows, Feyma has been sitting around with a blanket covering her! Personally, I am enjoying the cool weather. It’s much cooler lately than I ever remember in the 9 years that I’ve lived here. For nearly a year not, I have been noticing a trend toward cooler temperatures, this is just more extreme than we’ve seen, though.
Well, I hope there is school tomorrow! Lord knows, Ateneo is an expensive school, and since we have to pay one way or another, I hope that our kids actually get the education that we are paying for!
Hi Bob – You'd make a great weatherman, you know! I was curious as to the temperatures of late in Davao. I would periodically check on the Weather Channel website just out of curiousity. Yes, the forecasts did indicate cooler temperatures there, so I did pay much attention. Your article painted a more descriptive picture for me. Shall we point the finger at global warming? Or perhaps Mother Nature having a bad day? 🙂
hi bob,
I think, since your place do not experience flood or a 24 hour continuous rain, the school only played it safe when the rain is unusual, what if the rain becomes heavy? or it begins to flood? I think that is a good call by the school, since the weather is unusual for them.
anyways, in baguio, the temperature dropped to 4~5 degree for a almost a week now, the last time it happened was in 1965.
is there any global warming at all in the philippines? 😆
Maayong Buntag Bob
When I was a kid if the bus could bust through the snow drifts we had school and if we missed too many days we had to make them up during the summer. Now even in the RP they call off school for any reason. Sorry just had to complain.
PS. I will take the Filipino idea of cold any day. This morning it was -24F here in South Dakota. So cold they canceled my flight to the Philippines due to mechanical problems cause by the cold.
Hi Bob,
In Milwaukee is -9 F below today, Portland OR got 9 inches of snow during the holidays and now Davao is cold…what is the temp there? Thanks for global warming, if not you might have some snow flurries in Bajada by now! 🙂
Gerry
hi bob,
I don't have any knowledge where the school is located at or what it surrounds it, do you remember the flash flood/landslide happened in the philippines a couple of years ago? it wiped out the whole baranggay and the school too, it killed the entire barangay population, i can't remember the name of the province, anyways, there are many flash flood happened in the philippine and people are not even aware of it and not prepared, because it happens in a blink of an eye just like what happened in ormoc city
Hi Bob – Guess you're getting a sample of what the northeast monsoon is all about. 😉
Believe the air-con-less weather is part of the cyclical La Nina. Enjoy the respite from the 32+C temps – and the smaller electicity bill! 😆
Global Warming is a myth perpetuated by socialist minded people who want to limit your freedoms. I think the Earth does what it wants to do and there isn't anything us little humans can do to control it. As for the weather, if this keeps up I might have to work a furnace into my house design 😆 Seriously though I slept in clothes I haven't worn since Alaska last night and covered up by a wool blanket.
4 degrees in Baguio?!? My God how do they keep the houses warm when it falls that low? That's about 39 farenheit, brrrr!!
There was a news story on ABS-CBN that at first said a 72 yr old Cagayan man died from hypothermia in 14 degree Celsius weather. They later changed it to hypertension aggravated by the cold. Hmmm who would think that you could freeze to death so close to the equator. I have been working outside in the cold at Game and Fish workcenters all day today. I will take the Filipino cold anyday!
Hey Bob do you think you need to get the water wings out . 🙂 Phil n Jess
Hiya Bob, Yea my wife was home early from school as well but it was because of the workers at the school , so they could tend to family who were at potential being affected by the landslides up north maybe Davao schools are thinking along the same lines ?
Weather extremes are bad – I remember stories of starvation in Mindanao during the drought of the 1998 El Niño.
I hear ya – it seems an overreaction.
Kamusta ka Bob,,
Well growing up in the Washington, DC suburbs, and when the local officials would see one snow flake, schools would be shut down. Also of course, after it would really start snowing bad, they would wait for the last possible minute to send the salt trucks out on the roads. Always trying to conserve there budget for the salt each year, and paying the drivers overtime.
Yeah, the typhoon up near Manila seems a little extreme to me as well.
But remember, your not in " Kansas anymore Dorothy "…lol.
Daghang salamat,
Danny
Hi Bob
Temp is cool in Kuwait but that is to be expected in Jan, however my wife joy
is in Pangasian working on the house, and she said alot of her family is
sick due to the colder weather,I might have to put me a fireplace in there ( lol )
A trip to Baguio in on my "to do" list because I hear there are quite a few Arts & Crafts style houses there and since the design of my house I want to build is A & C want to see what;s been done already. Maybe I shouldn't have taken the fireplace out of the Sala that was on the original design?
Bob,
I hated the rain yesterday but enjoyed the cooler weather. I looked online and saw Davao airport at 75 Degress F.
My house does not have alot of windows or cross ventalation so at one point I sat outside in pajama pants and no shirt. That was the most comfortable temperture I have experienced here since I arrived. Lets pray for more of it except the rain.
@brspiritus In the United States, The National Academy of Sciences, The American Meteorological Society, the American Geophysical Union, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science have all issued statements in recent years concluding that the evidence for human modification of climate is compelling.
So I guess all these scientific people and organizations are “socialist minded” and "want to limit our freedoms". That a pretty big brush you’re painting people with.
Kevin: I also agree with brspiritus… Global warming has become a political issue and distraction. The organi*tions you mention all have serious financial incentive to back questionable claims, since most receive substantial government funding. Global warming has become a great topic to focus the public away from more serious problems like wars and the economy. Whereas the planet may be getting warmer, we are still in a natural warming after the end of the last ice age cycle. I'm not so certain that there is much anyone or any group can do to alter this pattern. Finally, there was 100 years after Darwin died that respected scientific organizations rejected evolution, which has far more solid evidence as a theory… Science was interrupted by theocracy, much as it is interrupted by politics now. The bottom line is that 100 years is a pimple on the bum of time and there have been many warming cycles throughout history, from many causes other than Man.
This time of the year we usully get about one week of Zero Deg. F. weather and I think this is the week it is going to be this year., 3 Deg F. this morning and predicted to go much lower tonight. After a couple of days of this I can hear the pump on my oil burner having to work a bit harder as the oil from my outdoor tank gets a bit more difficult for the pump to work with.
School closings ? I think these days, here, they may be more frequent due to predictions of snow and ice because the schools don't want to get sued by irate parents should there be injuries from a bus accident on slippery roads.
Yea its 'cold' there, my girl live in dasmarinas, cavite, is proud owner of TWO jackets now, if one is dirty and need clean, she has a back up! Ordinarily it's cold this time of year to her, but now the cold has come early there. and waht is with this gravatar business ngek
haha ok i see my gravatar wow look my anak haha
John, where did you read that ''respected scientific organizations rejected evolution?' Certainly not in new Scientist or any other peer reviewed publication. 'Intelligent design' is the fashionable alternative backed by a lot of American Evangelicals; it has never passed recognized peer review to compete with evolution as a science. If evolution did not exist we could not breed, so it's here to stay awhile.
Humanity has ensured there is more carbon in the aptmosphere than at any time in the last 200,000,000 years in 1 century & you guys think that's of no consequence?
No Earth/ = No Economy.
Or just keep choosing to ignore facts until they are proven beyond all possible doubt? (Of course by then it will be too late to do anything about it anyway!)
and so begins another round of global warming talk. this seems to happen every 2 months or so. well, not much to contribute here since i've talked about it before (for curious minds, i tend to side with Chris on this).
but now with a dash of evolution v. creationism (i refuse to call it intelligent design). boy, bob, your site really covers everything.
on the school cancellation topic, it does sound strange. but i did read report of possible flooding that day. it may have been an over reaction, but cancelling on soft rain is surely an indictment of the city's terrible drainage system –and getting worse even with massive expenses (debatable) being spent on fixing this problem.
but if i were still an adduhs student, i would have nooo problem with this. nada.
Hi Bob,
I suppose 'let's just talk about the weather!' isn't the soothing social panacea it once was hey?
Perhaps we need a new, non political non polarized subject?…mmm?
Let me know when you can think of one coz I'm havin trouble!
All in good fun Bob!
Macky is right, this sight is becoming very comprehensive. Which can't be a bad thing really, I think it helps with google!
I was kinda joking….
We are actually in a period of global cooling (normal cycle, please look at the New American article from Friday which makes a lot of sense http://www.thenewamerican.com/tech-mainmenu-30/en….
We will always have rain doctors proclaiming some falsehood that taps into human fear. The sudden failure of Y2K prophecies to provide a single catastrophic event was the launch pad for some other event to replace the need for fear in peoples lives. Global warming was just sitting there waiting to fill in for the Y2K bereavement. Al Gore et al saw a way to make a lot of money by cashing in on bad science. They ran with it as quickly as they could, cashed in their chips and are probably getting ready to the next scam.
The new phrase they want us to fear is "Climate Change". This is an excellent change in tactics, because they are on to something that defiinitely happens, the climate changes regularly, it is just that they need to change our perception now so that we now perceive the change as negative rather than something that is naturally occuring.
I was at an airport restaurant last year when a news channel was broadcasting that several very expensive homes in the California brush were burning down and several more were expected to burn in the coming days. Among the people present at the restaurant there was a collective hush and awe at the scene of devastation and then there was the sudden rush of chat about how global warming was out of control. The imagery of expensive homes burning alone was enough to convince people that global warming was now a reality and that alone was causing the fires, not the fact that fires had burned there for millions of years and developers had recently built houses in it's path. How absurd when you think about it.
But the real issue with Global Warming is how easily this fallacy has been pushed on us and consequentkly punished ordinary human beings, how mainstream media perpetuated the myth for fear of being castigated and how we have been let down so badly by the powers that be that are meant to protect us. What stops such a similar scam from being perpetuated in the future?
Instead of a Nobel Peace prize, Al Gore et al should be prosecuted for crimes against humanity. George Bush will have one lasting legacy, his was the only Government in the western world to stand up against the myth of global warming even though in the later part of his term they started to cave in. In recent times everybody was scared to open their mouth because the lie had been that well perpetuated. We need to learn lessons from this scam so it doesn't happen again.
And hopefully 2009 is the year that Al Gore discovers life on Mars because something has to be done to keep him out of causing harm to the earth based population.
Just had to check up on this one Bob;
google philippines and tag on headings from articles and LIP is consistently on the 1st page, so I gues if you headed an aricle ' global warming' you will get the same kind of results. I tagged on this to see if it came up from comments and not on the 1st 10 pages at least. I'm pretty impressed the site is so consistently strong in google; well done Bob and the rest of the LIP team!
and I can see why… ok from me Bob; you know I'm a greeny though. It's hard not to take the bait (:
hi bob – yes, i've been holding back on the comments, but still visiting regularly. work's been crazy these past few months. i shouldn't complain though. i even need to get back to my blog. i hope you didn't miss me too much 😉
btw, thanks for the friend invite. you can view pics of my current home city there.
hello Bob,
Still catching up on LIP and just got to this one. I was there that day and read in the paper next day that Mayor Rudy canceled school and caught a little heck for it. In all fairness I did walk my 6 year old daughter to be, to school that day and had to carry her half the way to keep her out of the flood water in front of the house. My only complaint was why did I have to get all the way there before I found out no school? hehe It did not flood at the house we rented during my stay but my wife to be lives in Roseville and it did there and I am sure some other areas of Davao. But it was Mayor Rudy's call. From what I see he does not make too many wrong ones. The reason I can't wait to live there. I will not miss you the next time.