Monsoon is the other season

Usually I am quite a vocal hater of rain. The cold whipping diagonal kind that spurts and gusts and makes the idea of an umbrella laughable. In other words the Pacific Northwest from September to May. All kidding aside, that late fall cold rain with the darkness is really something left coasters like to complain about and why shouldn't we? It's god awful. Singapore actually gets more rainfall than Vancouver (shock and awe I know). Rain here is that tropical gush of water with a few customary claps of thunder. It falls straight down (and at a rate that makes it bounce as high as your face) but then it ends. So yes... it rains here but it's different. Until Monsoon.

Mid October seems to be the cusp where we get into having a few days a week of dark cloud and torrential rain. The temperature lowers a few degrees and the only way to dry clothing is to bring it inside to be dried in front of an a/c unit. It's interspersed with plenty of dry clear sunny days for sure but it's the closest thing we have to a change in seasons and it does get a little dreary when we have several dark days in a row.

We are effected by the Indo-Australian Monsoon which strikes during September to February and hits us before it gets to the land of Kangaroos. Air currents and the warming and cooling of the Southern vs the Northern hemispheres creates a sort of vortex that picks up tons of water and dumps it on countries in finds along its journey. That's the really basic version. Monsoon season can cause a lot of flooding and destruction. Unfortunately global temperatures effect the intensity of the storms so global warming is going to make for more violent Monsoon weather systems according to history. In our immediate area we rarely get wind of any sort but thunder and flash floods? Yup. Every now and then Orchard Street fills up with water and guys in little rescue outfits carry women from their cars safely into Louis Vuitton (which was where they wanted to go anyway).

Singaporeans will swear this never ever happens. I chalk it up to the "two truths" theory of local culture because it's happened twice since we've been here. Both times this happened during the inter-monsoon which is another blip on our calendar around May/June. Anyway, that's it for my Monsoon post. Cheers from a warm wet place.

June 2010 Orchard Street Food

We couldn't let those shoes get wet now could we?