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Flooding Weather

AriLea

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This is a better place for this post, so I moved it here...

Not a "1000 years", my wife remembers clearly it happening in Zhengzhou before, and because it was the bad old Mao Ze Dong days with lots of poverty, many people starved to death when the crops were destroyed. Many came to our Province apparently begging for food and shelter, her Mum and Dad were a Nurse and a Doctor, and they helped many, that's why she remembers it so well.

I am critical of China for not having National swimming programs, this is a Country of water, there are rivers, lakes, dams everywhere, yet most of them can't swim, most can't even tread water, terrible watching these people drowning in simple situations where we would be laughing it off. All Australians are taught to swim at school because 90% live close to the Oceans.

There's other stupidity going on as well, they are walking through flood waters, which you just don't, grabbing on to light steel poles and dropping dead from electrocution, disappearing down drains, trying to drive their cars through flooded streets etc. I am appalled at the stupidity of those who went and caught the subway trains, I hope they do something about that in the future. The last place you go is down underground in massive rain storms. Many deaths could have been avoided with some of the most basic information.

Also your concerns should be going out to Germany as well, they are suffering badly, over 200 perished when they find everybody.

By the way, in my own town here in Sichuan, about 10 years ago, I saw 10" of rain drop in an hour, it was frightening. Even the World record, in Missouri, is 12" in an hour. It wasn't like rain drops, but like continuous streams of water from millions of hoses that you couldn't even see through.

PS: Posts like this remind me we are all people who generally care for each other, and the nonsense between Nation's Governments doesn't matter, appreciated.

..............

I actually came here just let you know I have been tinkering, but otherwise a slow week as it's been over 100F degrees in the factory every day this week as Summer peaks.

The Summer rains started the last 2 days, so will start cooling things down.

It is a bit odd around here in Phoenix too. We have had fairly strong weather every other day this last week. Even blew a cement tile off my roof, broke branches off of my front yard tree. It lost half of it's bulk. Not very normal for here, not at that level anyway.

But Phoenix is like that. I planted a fast growing tree in the back yard years ago, hoping for some picnic shade. But every 8 months or so the weather would somehow tip off my roof and between me and the neighbor, making some kind of shear, and BAM, it would wind-bomb the tree. That would tear it down to half it's size each time. Pretty hopeless for shade.

This is our 'monsoon season' which is usually fairly trivial compared to other countries. Except for maybe one flash flood in the mountains and a a few days of heavy rain, it usually just ends our fire season. Yet last year was very very dry. But this year, the front tree has ripped up, and that tile has fallen. Still Phoenix has nothing to gripe about, unless this keeps up for many more days, then we will see. We don't have the infrastructure to handle very much.

Frankly, Tucson is the one that gets it worse. They actually have streets that are alternate drainage canals. Whenever it gets like this, those fill up, and some poor fool will say, that's not too deep for a car! Then they drive into it, and get swept away into deeper water, you know the rest.

The thing I am aware of, (as you probably are too) there is a relationship between ocean heat and cloud cover over land.
On a broad and general scale...
At some point the oceans will have gathered a bunch of heat. That will at some point work to build enough moisture in the air. There is then potential that you get cloud cover, and then rain over the land. Yadda, yadda all sounds normal.
But that cloud cover reflects some heat, cooling the land and air. That cooled air moves back over the oceans. The difference puts extra moisture in the air.
All fine unless that heat difference is at some higher threshold.

Meanwhile, the ocean still has more excess heat, and will continue to dump moisture into the air, until the difference between the land and air balance out.
More complex than that, and usually much smaller in scale. But still, at some higher threshold, it explains flooding in multiple places around the world, at the same time. In this case after the summer has reached past the peak point in the northern hemisphere.

Hurricanes are an example of the result of crossing one threshold. Are we now at another?

Anyway, I'm worried about all these places, and all these people.

PS Added from CNN:
"Forecast rainfall totals across the US have a bulls eye with the highest amounts directly over Arizona in the next five days. Monsoonal moisture is expected to bring more than 5 inches of rainfall to some regions of the state, prompting significant flash flooding concerns."

Yes, definitely that is not normal for around here. All the places I see for holding water look full as I drove into work today. -Arak
 

Coss

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I hear this and... well so much for moving there.....next.... any good suggestions? I want to find a place that is warm, no real crazy weather, no snow, and no flooding. Know of any place that has decent weather? I'm open to suggestions.
 

Made in USA

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I hear this and... well so much for moving there.....next.... any good suggestions? I want to find a place that is warm, no real crazy weather, no snow, and no flooding. Know of any place that has decent weather? I'm open to suggestions.
Please define your parameters. Like what do you consider warm? Does humidity matter? What is crazy weather?

I mean, the Sahara desert is warm, no snow or flooding. Sandstorms maybe.
 

AriLea

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I hear this and... well so much for moving there.....next.... any good suggestions? I want to find a place that is warm, no real crazy weather, no snow, and no flooding. Know of any place that has decent weather? I'm open to suggestions.
I probably did make it sound worse overall than it is. People are moving here for a reason. The complaints I stated are usually very localized and not all that often. But they do happen enough that we should learn how to cope, but never enough that everybody around here is always up to speed on it.

Arizona is both weird and wonderful. 4 months of the year we do indeed have it hot. But it is a very dry heat. 110 here at 7percent is like 90 back in Western Washington at 75per humidity. But there you typically don't have AC (in the past). Then the other 8 months in Phoenix, it is as good a weather as you can find. In fact, perfect Golfing weather. Snow birds, people who leave for the summer have it best. They leave by the end of May, and come back by the start of October more or less. But there seems to be a change to staying all year, for many retirees now.

But in the heat, I never suffer. I have AC in my car, AC at the office, and AC at home. Those you must maintain. Other than that, I never suffer much at all. It is uncomfortable going out side into the summer sun between car and store, but it is not as harsh as Nevada, IMHO. You get very used to that.
In fact Washington State is just as bad at it's worst.

Then the summer heat has set up a condition, we call the monsoon as I noted above. It's actually quite a relief. True, we get some tree damage, but not often. And this year I'm having 75 degree days for this week. It cools us off from the summer. At some point the monsoon will loose it's energy, and be gone. Some areas have flash flood issues at those times. Take it seriously, and you will be fine.

If you hear of such things here, it's affecting a 50 by 50 mile area at the most. If you hear of such things in Washington State, it's 25% to 100% of the state.

The monsoon here usually means about two or three short sprints of rain and weather. Not a lot compared to other places. We have a saying here, if you don't like the weather you got, drive 20 miles, you will get something else there. It's kind of fun to sit in one spot, and see a flash rain dump happening 30 miles over there somewhere.

And also, there are low lying plains (we call the valleys, hundreds of miles wide sometimes), and highlands (the Mogollon Rim, or the white mountains near New Mexico, devils' highway), and all levels in between. Each acts a little differently in each season. The 'valley' near Tucson acts a little different from the 'valley' near Phoenix.

In the winter, before we felt much of the 'global warming', you might have to put on a jacket during the day, and maybe two nights out of the year worry about exposed pluming for freezing. But I have not had to worry about either for 5 years now. My jackets are gathering dust.

I get to wear exactly the same clothes for 5 years. Long cargo pants, pull-over shirt, black socks and black sandals, to work and everywhere. No jackets, no hoodies. Once in a while I will keep a hat in my car, in case I wish to keep rain off my glasses, 2-3 times a year maybe.

Oddly as we hear more complaints about 'global warming', our summers don't seem to be getting any worse. We do seem to have more drought than before, but not a big a change as other areas have changed.

One thing we don't have much of here, real mountains. Not many anyway. Washington State has real mountains. We have mostly Mesa's and hills. But then some features like the Mogollon Rim and Salt River Canyon, and also half of the Grand Canyon. Pretty, and pretty weird, both.

And then there is Sedona, we can talk about that sometime. Really a bit like the Rim, but more interesting and more accessible. I've not seen any photo have the same effect as walking round in it. But that goes the same for the Canyons. See it, feel it, it goes together.
 
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Coss

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That's the one I'm looking for.... I might have to come down and check it out. Hey AriLea you have room to put me up for a day or two? ;-)
 

AriLea

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That's the one I'm looking for.... I might have to come down and check it out. Hey AriLea you have room to put me up for a day or two? ;-)
lol, oh boy, OMG, you would be in for a lot on that one.
But yes, if you have had your Covid shot, I would gladly let you have some carpet upstairs. (a fairly dirty-need-to-be-replaced-carpet-in-an-open-area). Everything else is occupied. That would be next to the stand where I was keeping 30 fins for testing. (now down to 4 pairs)

Seriously, it's good with me if you are game.

You would have to put up with a lot, there is a lonely cat that might sleep on you, the upstairs bathroom does not have a working shower. Every so often the cat has to dive for shelter when Jagar the German Shepard is let out to head downstairs. There are 4 grandchildren all in the awkward ages for us old guys, 17-to-19. Fortunately they keep to their bedrooms to play games or watch their TV's. Two additional grandchildren come to visit and hangout some days. 3 dogs downstairs that bark constantly, and try and eat the 4 cats that sneak in and out of the downstairs cat-window-insert-door. This is in the room that my daughter and her committed man occupy. 2800sqft, is really not enough for all that.
-everyone is working now, so in a year everything will change, at least for me and my wife--

A menagerie is an understatement. But I would be able to give you maps of the best drives I know of. I like driving in open natural areas best. (depending on the season, also, depending on recent weather) I would not be able to go on a full day trip myself, as I take care of my wife who is house-bound. (We treat the master bedroom like a studio apartment.) I could also show you that the Atlantric plug actually exists.

Here is one such drive;
In about 4-6 hours, you could drive out of my house, past Superstition Mountain (area of the Lost Dutchman's gold mine), past the Boyce Thompson Arboretum in Superior (Superior Mine area) up into a semi-long tunnel into 'The Devils Canyon', then next see massive mining operations and into Globe. Then up into the canyons beyond, and after a short drive along cliffs and such into the Salt River Canyon, which is like a mini Grand Canyon. Back-tract to Globe, off to Roosevelt Lake, then into Payson to have lunch, which looks like the Ponderosa Ranch had sold out to housing developments and a Walmart. Then drive back down south through many canyons, ridges and Barrel Cactus, to a turn off at the N Bush Highway, stop at Saguaro Lake if you want to see another desert setting for a lake. Then past the Red Mountain area, and go though the Usery Mountain Regional Park. Then 30 minute drive in a typical Arizona city layout, (or use the freeway) back to my house. Allow yourself more time if you stop to use any of the sight-seeing spots. 10 hours would be good.

(look up the pictures for these things, although, it will not do it justice, even better drive it on google maps) A B C D E F -otherplaces- -OTwo- -O3-

If you like Mountains, Canyons, Rocks, Cliffs, cactus, weird plants, weird rocks, long views from a height, topography of all kinds, that would be the drive. We don't have the ocean, bays and lakes of NW Washington, but we do have topography. (and cactus galore), well, we do have some lakes.
I will even vacuum and clean the carpet.

Honestly, having been the driver, the best way to see all of this, is to NOT be the driver. My wife and I have a rule, never tell the driver, "Look at THAT!" (off a cliff-woopie!)

On the other hand, if you choose any number of cheap hotels nearby, I will help you choose among about a half dozen really nice day-ride drives, or point out other local sights, local areas and interesting places to live.
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Coss

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Hmm nothing I'm not used to, sounds like a lot of places I've stayed.
I'm still in the planning stage so I'll have to let you know, when. Fair enough?
 
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