I thought I would mention that I'm currently on long leave. Here are the two reasons for that :
I won't return to work till May next year. Things are quite busy now, looking after 2 children, so I only manage to get a few minutes online at intervals during the day. I decided that I would at least get my blog done (maybe I should rename it "Memoirs of a Meteorologist") before my leave is over, and also brush up a little on my met. knowledge.
Incidentally, I was due to give birth to No. 2 on 3
One of our duties in the Met. Service is to answer phone calls. There are routine ones, like those from the Security Officers (S.O.'s) to various Ministers, who call in the morning to get the day's forecast. Sometimes the Ministry of Foreign Affairs might call because they are receiving some visiting Head of State or foreign dignitary at the airport & want to know the expected weather at the time. Once, D played an April Fool's joke on me by calling & pretending to be the S.O. to the Pri
I bring fresh showers for the thirsting flowers, from the seas and the streams; I bear light shade for the leaves when laid in their noon-day dreams. From my wings are shaken the dews that waken, the sweet buds every one, When rocked to rest on their mother's breast, as she dances about the Sun. I wield the flail of the lashing hail, and whiten the green plains under, And then again I dissolve it in rain, and laugh as I pass in thunder. I sift the snow on the mountains below, and their great
When Pat & I returned to Singapore, we were each assigned to understudy a senior forecaster and started operational work. The shift considered of a 6-day cycle : 2 day shifts, then a night shift followed by 3 days off. The first day shift was devoted to aviation and shipping, while the second involved public weather forecasts, issuing TAFs & trend statements & sending out lightning risk warnings to various clients, mostly golf courses & construction companies. Night shift include
I have a number of met. books. Most are textbooks, but there are also some that I bought just to enjoy, like these :
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I bought Spacious Skies second hand from Foyles in London. I really like the book - it contains dozens of great photos accompanied by brief explanations. I think it necessary for a weather enthusiast to own a couple of such books. At the time I bought this, the use of the internet wasn't widespread, so the best way to see a variety of weather phenomena was throu
We had a fairly typical "Sumatra" on 15 Aug. "Sumatra" is a nickname for a squall line that often forms over the Indonesian land mass of Sumatra & then moves over the Malacca Straits to affect Singapore and Malaysia.
This particular Sumatra seems to have started organising itself just before affecting Singapore.
"Sumatras" often affect us during the night, between 3am and 6am; one can see a line of echoes on the radar steadily making its way eastward. If there's no bad weather around w
A water spout was spotted off Sentosa's Siloso Beach on 14 Aug, according to an article in the local newspaper, The Straits Times.
In the article, "A Sentosa spokesman said such waterspouts are common but they never occur on the island. 'Usually, they are very far away but can be seen from Sentosa. They don't last long,' he added."
Unfortunately I don't have access to that day's radar pictures (only the last two hours are available online) or we would be able to have a look at the weather
My cousin Ann is getting married at the end of the year & had her wedding photoshoot on 4 July. In Singapore, a lot of wedding couples opt to have a photo shoot consisting of both indoor shots in the studio & outdoor shots in various locations around the island. Ann informed me that she was bringing 7 BAGS of outfits (a mix of evening wear plus her wedding dress) to the shoot. (D was quite shocked when I told him, well at least I spared him having to endure that many changes during our w
I like this book.
It contains 32 interviews with well-known meteorologists. Each interview was originally published in the WMO Bulletin. In the book, the author Hessam Taba recalls where the idea of the interviews came from : "...when I came back from my summer holiday in Sept 1980, I heard that Professor Jacques Van Mieghem had died. His sudden disappearance affected me deeply; we had worked together for many years and I had conceived a profound respect for him. I wished very much that I had
LENTICULAR CLOUDS
These are stationary lens-shaped clouds that are sometimes mistaken for UFOs because of their smooth saucer-like shape. Where stable moist air flows over a mountain or a range of mountains, a series of large-scale standing waves may form on the downwind side. Lenticular clouds sometimes form at the crests of these waves.
Unfortunately we don't see these in Singapore because there are no high mountains nearby. I once did see some lens-shaped clouds while driving home from
One of my Reading classmates emailed me the other day, which was a pleasant surprise. He's with the UK Met Office, & said that UKMO is currently centralising its operations. He was writing during his shift, and ended off with :
"It's a quiet night because pressure is high. Just had some excitement because there is some noctilucent cloud outside - the first time I have ever seen any. It's very high cloud (mesospheric I think) which catches the sunlight long after the sun has gone down - rig
Super Typhoon "Saomai" about to make landfall on mainland China yesterday :
It really is an awesome system, one of the more powerful typhoons to hit China this year. I like the distinct "eye". B)
A news article on Saomai's impact.
"Saomai" is the Vietnamese name for Venus, or the Morning Star. It was a good move several years ago to start giving local names to this region's tropical cyclones. The Hong Kong Observatory has a nice section on them, including their meaning, country of origin
Today is Singapore's Independence Day. We were a British colony until 1965.
There will be a parade this evening, called the National Day Parade (NDP). It is one of the major events of the year, with several thousand spectators & displays from the military as well as government & private groups, & dance performances by schoolchildren. The president, prime minister & all members of parliament will be present.
Part of the celebrations includes a military flypast of F16s from our
A tsunami hit Java in Indonesia on 17 July. (See article).
I am on leave so I wasn't in the office that day, but I knew there had been a large earthquake because my mobile phone received at least 20 SMSes, including 2 tsunami alerts. (D is involved in running our seismic system, & since he doesn't have a mobile phone he uses mine to test the system).
Since the 26 Dec 2004 tsunami, attempts are being made to set up a warning system for our region. Singapore itself isn't in an earthquake zon
Am taking a break from reminiscing to post something more current.
I was checking out the forum at the Hong Kong Weather Underground for the first time a couple of days ago. This thread caught my attention. I was amused because the members were all lamenting the fact that no tropical cyclone had hit Hong Kong lately, & they were monitoring a tropical depression (07W) currently over the Philippines (see satellite picture below) & debating about whether it would affect Hong Kong or not.
My first post. I have been wanting to keep a weather blog for some time, because after working for a no. of years in this field, I find that there are quite a lot of memorable events I'd like to record down. I didn't plan to be a meteorologist initially. I did physics at uni & wasn't sure what I wanted to do after that. Most of my classmates planned to teach, or join something related to the electronics sector. In my 2nd yr, one of my lecturers, Dr Lim Hock, gave a lecture on meteorology. I
