Floods in Thailand result from rainfall amounts 3 times larger than normal for January:
Heavy and persistent rain across the Malay peninsula caused flash flooding in southern provinces of Thailand on Monday and Tuesday last week. The deluge was caused by the combined effect of the north-east monsoon in the Gulf of Thailand and a low pressure system over northern Malaysia. Some 361mm of rain was recorded at Nakhonsi Thammarat in 36 hours, nearly three times the average January total.
Soryy, make that 3 TIMES the amount of rainfall in just 36 HOURS than is normal in Thailand for the ENTIRE MONTH OF JANUARY. Mea Culpa.
Meanwhile in the good old Us of A and our Socialist neighbor to the North, the weather has been shall we say, a little odd this week. How so you ask? Guess which region was colder: Western Canada or Northern Florida?
[A] snow storm hit the Midwest, not only bringing heavy snow in places, but also blanketing many eastern areas in cold Arctic air. This led to the lowest temperatures of the winter so far, with even Jacksonville in northern Florida recording a minimum of -8C [18 degrees F] overnight on Tuesday. Contrarily, parts of California experienced unusual heat for the time of year. Many places recorded temperatures in excess of 30C [i.e., over 86 degrees F]on Wednesday, setting new date records. Western Canada was also unusually warm with more than 30 date records beaten in Alberta alone, and Calgary reached 15.3C [60 degrees F] on Wednesday.
In western New York, normally we are blanketed by snow this time of year, but right now all I can see out my window is my green green lawn. The temperature outside is (for this time of year) a somewhat warm 41 degrees F. Snowfall for the month of December, 2011 in Rochester NY was 1.8 inches, which is much less than the average of 21 inches of snow for the month. So I guess we were warmer than Northern Florida yesterday! Hope you didn’t book your Gulf Coast vacation for this week.
Now back to your regularly scheduled discussions of Mittens Romney, Lizard Brain Gingrich, Ron (not Rand) Paul, the Frothy Santorum, and some guy named Huntsman. I heard there was a primary in New Hampshire today. My prediction? Barack Obama wins in a landslide.
