"Sun Sad" by Mike Muk
The smoke haze is back in Singapore. It made front page news in the local newspapers & was reported in Channel News Asia as well. Quite a number of people also sent hazy photos to the Stomp website. The National Environment Agency (of which Met Services Division is a part) has also posted a haze update on its website.
For the haze to be such a newsworthy item actually speaks well for our usual air quality - in some large cities, smog prevails every day & such at
A Von Karman vortex street caused by the airflow over the island of Jan Mayen in the Greenland Sea :
Such vortices can be seen in many other places; these trails off Alaska's Aleutian Islands are even more spectacular :
I must confess I have a soft spot for the Jan Mayen vortices, though, because Jan Mayen was where I first heard of the phenomenon ... the book Spacious Skies had several photos of them. I find them amazing - never realised such regular & intricate cloud patterns existed
After the Hurricane Workshop in Miami, I met D at Heathrow & we rented a car & drove straight to Wales. It might have been more logical to stay on in the U.S. & have a holiday there, but I wasn't so familiar with getting around the U.S. & driving on the right side of the road; I'd lived a year in the UK & I wanted a holiday where I could really relax. I chose Wales because I'd already been around Scotland & England.
Some of the places we visited were Tenby, Aberystwyth,
Noticed this in Craig's post under the South China Heatwave thread. Yep, good names. :lol: Spring Begins Feb 4 Rain Water Feb 19 Awakening of Insects Mar 6 Spring Equinox Mar 21 Clear and Bright Apr 5 Grain Rains Apr 20 Summer Begins May 6 Grain Fills May 21 Grain in Ear Jun 6 Summer Solstice Jun 21 Slight Heat Jul 7 Great Heat Jul 23 Autumn Begins Aug 8 End of Heat Aug 23 White Dew Sep 8 Autumn Equinox Sep 23 Cold Dew Oct 8 Hoar Frost Oct 23 Winter Begins Nov 7 Little Snow Nov 22 Great Sno
Our newest colleague made these mooncakes. :lol: He seems to have missed his vocation - they look really professional. Well, maybe he'll set up his own bakery one day. :lol:
The Chinese words are "zhong qiu yue bing, hua hao yue yuan" which translates as "Midautumn mooncakes, beautiful flowers & full moon (also signifying conjugal bliss)".
Read about the Midautumn festival here. :o
When Pat & I started work, colleagues would sometimes joke that we should double up as TV weather girls for MSS. Fortunately, MSS tried this out sometime before we joined & scrapped the idea because none of the forecasters was telegenic enough. Personally I would find it quite horrid to have to appear on TV. :lol: Some years later we really did have some weather girls, the first of which was Charlene, sister of one of our local actors Adrian Pang.
Presenting weather on TV isn't as s
Tropical Storm "Greg" (43W) was an unusual weather system in that tropical cyclones (TCs) seldom occur at latitudes low enough to affect Malaysia. The country is divided into West Malaysia (Peninsular Malaysia) and East Malaysia (consisting of the states of Sabah & Sarawak).
GMS IR image at 240400Z. 2 hours later, the JTWC upgraded the cloud cluster to Tropical Depression status
"Greg" was first observed as a cloud cluster that developed on the night of 20 Dec 1996, over the South China
The smoke haze in southern Kalimantan is looking bad. The people there must be almost suffocating.
If winds in the area remain easterly/southeasterly, it's going to drift over to Singapore ... :lol:
This is one of my favourite photos, of a cap cloud over Ball's Pyramid, New South Wales :
It would be interesting to know what atmospheric conditions had been present that day, & whether this is a common phenomenon. As I mentioned before, I like cap clouds a lot and this must be the Mother of all Cap Clouds.
The other photo I really like is this one of a cumulonimbus, over Point Lookout, also in New South Wales :
I've seen a lot of cb clouds since then, but somehow nothing can beat th
THE ASMC
A few days after I started work, I discovered that MSS was hosting a research centre called the ASMC (ASEAN Specialised Meteorological Centre). At that time there were three scientists attached there, Dr Rosa Perez from PAGASA (the Philippines' Met. Office) and Tukul Rameyo Adi & Suratno from BMG, Indonesia. Adi and Suratno were not exactly meteorologists but doing some technical work for BMG. Adi once showed me his wedding photo & I couldn't help laughing because although he l
A multicell thunderstorm that occurred some time ago, recorded with the weather radar at Paya Lebar Airbase. The second cell can be seen forming after the first has dissipated.
There are a lot of funny weather cartoons on the net, like this one :
However I can't find any I like as much as the following two, which have been pasted on my locker for years :
I love Woodstock; :lol: he's just so cute. :lol:
Group photo : Mrs Lourdes Tibig is in the 2nd row, 5th from left. Donald Tambunan (from the
ASEAN Secretariat) is in front, extreme right. Next to him is Mr E.H. Al-Majed, the WMO rep.
ASCMG is the ASEAN Subcommittee on Meteorology and Geophysics. It oversees collaboration between the ASEAN member countries in coordinating various programmes, sharing information (such as that on haze pollution & volcanic ash), & implementing warning systems. The Subcommittee meets annually, and in 1997
I came across these photos as I was looking through some of my old files. Not sure where they came from, but this is quite a nice water spout.
That's one of our container terminals in the foreground, possibly Tanjong Pagar.
A friend in Auckland sent me some photos, including this nice rainbow.
However I was more struck by her photo of the University of Auckland Clock Tower :
It looks quite unique. Why can't we have this in Singapore? I tried finding out more about the architect, but all I could discover was that he is Roy Alstan Lippincott, and that "the Clock Tower combined traditional architectural elements with local decorative motifs : flax flowers, ponga fronds and kaka can be found in the stone detai
Asian Aerospace is an international trade fair for the aerospace business. It was based at the Changi Exhibition Centre near Changi Airport for a number of years, and is the biggest airshow event in Asia. A Liaison Officer (L.O.) is usually attached to each of the high-ranking foreign delegates coming to attend the Exhibition. The L.O.'s job is basically to receive the delegate when he arrives at the airport, facilitate and ensure his attendance at the various meetings, & send him off when h
My latest acquisition :
I saw some reviews in the forum here, so I decided to see if the book was available in Singapore. There are two big bookstores here, Borders and its rival, Kinokuniya. Besides a large collection of books, Borders has comfy chairs, a music section with a good selection of CDs, and a cafe. Kinokuniya has a convenient delivery service where you can order your books online and have them delivered the very next day. Moreover, if you order more than S$50 worth of books, ther
The second airbase I was posted to was Sembawang. It is a helicopter base, open 24 hrs. The Met. Office there was much more pleasant than at Tengah, mainly because there were many large windows. There was also a balcony for observation, & the only direction that couldn't be viewed was south. The working hours were more regular too, either a morning shift (0730 - 1400hrs) or afternoon shift (1330 - 2200hrs).
The senior forecaster there at the time was Mr L. He was a nice guy, but very fond
Besides doing civilian work at Changi Airport, we also have forecasters stationed at military airbases around the island. There was a shortage of manpower at one time, so several of the Changi forecasters had to cover duty there, including me.
The work consisted mainly of monitoring the weather and issuing a warning if a thunderstorm was going to affect the airbase. It was a good experience because I did a lot more outdoor observation there than I did at Changi. In Changi, we were issuing warni
Pat is one of those ultra-neat people. When we were in Reading her room was always unimagineably tidy, & in the office her locker is always spick & span, books nicely arranged, not a thing out of place. She is always careful & meticulous in her work, and I have never seen her lose her temper.
She was posted to our climatology section recently, where our archives are kept & which is in charge of met. equipment. Part of her work involves providing weather data required for insuran
Being in the civil service, we are able to book Cluny Lodge, a bungalow owned by the Singapore government. D often suggested we stay there, but I kept putting it off because I liked Strawberry Park & am usually lazy to try anything new. Our colleague C the Toothbrush Man brought his family there to stay once, though, & after hearing about it from him I decided to give it a try.
Lane leading to Cluny Lodge, lined by firs supposedly planted by Lee Kuan Yew; Cluny Lodge in morning sunlig
D's hometown is in Ipoh, Malaysia & we normally visit every year around the Chinese New Year period. Ipoh is surrounded by limestone hills, & once you've passed Kuala Lumpur along the North-South Highway, the route becomes quite scenic. D grew up accustomed to seeing hills around & it is one thing he misses here in Singapore.
Limestone hills in Ipoh. View from the teashop.
During our stay we normally spend a few days in Cameron Highlands. The weather is cooler there, & it is
Ask a weather watcher what his/her favourite weather is, & the popular answers are usually thunderstorms/hurricanes/tornadoes. Either that or it would be sunny weather, or snow. But since the atmosphere produces a host of other phenomena as well, I always find it interesting to discover those that are less well-known.
I first heard of the polar low from one of my lecturers in Reading, Dr George Craig. He was from Toronto, and had studied the convective processes in polar lows for his PhD. T
We have several SAREX (Search and Rescue Exercises) every year, organised by the RCC (Rescue Coordination Centre). The date of the SAREX is usually faxed to us a few months before & most of the forecasters can then be seen checking the roster to see who's going to be on duty that day. The rescue location is announced on the day itself, & our job consists of providing wind, weather & sea state conditions every 3 hours for that area.
During the time I've worked here, I've encountered
Pat has an 8-year old nephew living in Australia. One day in the office she grinned at me & said, "Want to read a letter from Julian?" She handed me a white envelope with the words :
Ee's Boss
Mad Office
solemnly written in scrawly handwriting on it.
It turned out that "Ee" referred to "Yi-Yi" which is "Auntie" in Chinese.
The letter read :
Dear Ee's Boss,
can you please give my Ee time off as leave to visit me in Sydney for my Confirmation. My Ee is my God-ma.
I long to see her in p
