Tag: flooding

More research needed

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Here’s an interesting article about the recent (last 10 years) chaotic weather that has hit Cape Town.

Its writing was precipitated (no pun intended) (or was it?!?) ostensibly by the storms that hit in April, after the storms that hit in September, after the drought that hit a few years back.

And since it was published, we’ve had more extreme weather. 200mm of rain falling onto Cape Agulhas last week, rendering that road – and many more – undrivable again.

Look, this is the Cape of Storms, as referenced in the article. But climate change should be making Cape Town drier, but these extreme events aren’t related to the cold fronts that bring the winter rain to our region. These are the cut-off lows (see 6000 miles… passim) which can occur at any time of year – and they appear to have been occurring quite a lot recently.

They’re nothing new. The Laingsberg Flood of January 1981 was due to a cut-off low.

But are there more cut-off lows than previously, or are we just more aware of them? Are these handful of floods just an unfortunate series of severe weather events, or is this what we must be planning for in the future?

Sadly, n just doesn’t equal enough to give us a definitive answer.

As it says, we now need some more information, but given the toll of these floods: whether it being people cut off, having property damaged, livestock drowning or whatever, we need it soon, please.

Day 420 – That weather, though…

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It rained all night and it’s rained all day. It’s still raining. We’ve had 225mm (that’s the whole 9 yards inches) in the last 22 hours – that’s a lot of water – and it’s still banging down out there. Hard.
I’ve drained the pool twice already today: I’m going to have to do it again tomorrow morning.

It does seem that the first three cold fronts to hit the Cape this season have been particularly vicious. And there’s plenty more rain to come in the early hours of the morning.
You know it’s bad when there’s an old guy with a grey beard and a staff leading animals two-by-two towards the harbour. That didn’t happen today, because it’s all just myth and legend, but actually, it wouldn’t have surprised me.

I have been working inside all day and it’s been particularly satisfying to get a lot of longstanding jobs ticked off my list. There’s been some electrical work, plenty of painting, a bit of cooking, some organisation of “stuff”, and some angle-grinding. Barefoot and nylon shorts probably not the most advisable attire for that last one.
Things got a bit stingy and melty rather quickly.
Would not recommend.

And yes, I know I keep going on about this, but the fire has made the whole day bearable. It’s done brilliantly in spreading its warmth quite a long way across the ground floor of the house. It was a good decision. And it’s nice (and sadly uncommon) when you can look at something and really think “yes, money well spent”.

And now, with the boy out and about at Scouts, I’m going to settle down on/in the beanbag and watch a couple of Youtube videos that have been teasing me from my various devices and trying to get me to give up on today’s jobs. They did not succeed, but now with the list so completely decimated (not literally), I feel that I deserve to have a bit of down time.

Day 416 – Some quick details

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Back from Agulhas. All good down there, but lots (and lots) of water.

There’s an A319 under there somewhere.

Fireplace installation promised tomorrow. Finally. I must buy some firewood. (I have some firewood, I just need to buy some more firewood.)

If you’re reading this in hospital, just remember that things could be worse: non-family visitors could be allowed.

Loadshedding is back. And the reasons this time are scary. Ten different breakdowns at seven different power stations. Our electricity grid is literally held together (or not) by thoughts, prayers and aging sticky tape.

And the sticky tape isn’t working.

A Monday catch-up

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I haven’t found one specific thing worthy of a blog post of its own yet today, so I thought I’d share several of the thing which were almost worthy of a blog post of their own. Collectively, these things are worth far more than a single blog post, so you’re certainly getting your money’s worth today.

First up: flooding in Paris:

Insane! Or rather not in Seine at all right now. This is of specific interest to me because we’ve just booked a trip to Europe in June/July and Paris and French waterways are included. I particularly enjoyed the line:

The national flood monitoring agency Vigicrues said the water levels hit a maximum height of 5.84 meters (19 feet, 2 inches) on the Austerlitz scale early Monday. That’s below initial fears last week, and well below record levels of 8.62 meters in 1910.

Yeah. But that’s only really a bonus if your property lies between 5.85 and 8.62m on the Austerlitz scale though, isn’t it?

Then: Superpods of dolphins are gathering off the coast of South Africa

Am I the only one who finds this headline vaguely threatening?
The “are gathering” bit does sound as if there is some common porpoise (stop it!) to their behaviour, and I think we’re all aware that what I mean by that is dolphin invasion, something we’ve covered here before.
Researchers suggest that it may rather be something to do with defending themselves against sharks, but then researchers would suggest that, wouldn’t they? They’re in on the act.
It’s telling that the majority of the pods have been sighted off the sleepy seaside village of Port Elizabeth. PE is the ideal place to begin an takeover: by the time the locals have worked out what is going on and release the emergency carrier pigeons from the Campanile, the tanks (either kind, you do the maths) of invading dolphins will be on the Free State border.

Playing with photos

Practice, they say, makes perfect. And one day, I’d like my photo editing to be perfect. So, whenever I can, I’m finding photos to practice on. Since I didn’t take any this weekend (again, despite this), I’ve borrowed one from Brian Micklethwait over at BrianMicklethwait.com. I loved his photo of Victoria Station (link), and so I shamelessly stole borrowed it and put a bit of a spin on it with Adobe Lightroom Classic CC.

Just for absolute clarity, I’m not suggesting that my version is in any way better. I’m just suggesting that it’s different. I was inspired by two things: firstly, the “vintage” look of the station roof, and secondly, Brian’s own thoughts on his image:

I like how this kind of scene permits bright colours, like those little union jacks, but turns fainter colours monochrome, like when that little girl in a red coat appears in Schindler’s List.

The more washed out feel that I’ve tried to give it still allows for those flags to stand out. Maybe they should stand out more. Maybe I should practice more.

And, just because I liked the headlines, these:

Because the data from their fitness apps are now publicly available.

and:

Only, of course, if you’re singing and dancing pornographically in Cambodia.

Half a World Away

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Not the REM song, but an interesting thought as the UK and the Isle of Man face flooding, while my biggest problem is burning my feet on the way to the fridge to get another beer:
image

As you can see, it’s another gorgeous day down in Agulhas, and its sad to think that we’re heading home tomorrow – just in time for Sunday’s welcome(?) rain in Cape Town.