Drought this summer in Western Japan?

[dimwit]

Half empty or half full?

Dimwit is glad that he is not spending August in Matsuyama as all signs seem to point to a water shortage here. The rainy season so far hasn't happened and Ishite Dam is already down to 70% capacity (at this time it should be full). Given that the dam water will be half used up by rice farmers unless there is a big storm here soon problems lie ahead.

The locals are still haunted by the 1994 drought when the dam ran dry and Matsuyama had NO fresh water for about 4 months. It served as a wonderful welcome to Japan for me.

How is the water situation in the rest of Japan looking this summer?

[Blah Pete]

On the news they just showed a map with the % of dam capacity and Fukuoka was about 25%, Yonago was 19%. Western Japan is looking dry.

[james]

i'm out here in shimane and while i can't tell you what levels the dams are at, i can tell you that we've had almost no significant rainfall whatsoever in the last few months. lots of brown trees and the mountainsides are a tinderbox.

i'd take almost anything now, including a typhoon.

[Blah Pete]

lots of brown trees and the mountainsides are a tinderbox.

That is not so good considering there are no wildfire teams here in J-Land. They call the regular fire dept. to fight wildfires.

[khusam]

Hmm.. I used to be a forest fire-fighter. (A long time ago, but I still remeber how to use a shovel.)

I heard something, somewhere.. that FG's can't be volunteer firefighters.

True?

[dimwit]

Time to call off the water shortage in Western Japan. It has been the water shortage in Western Japan. It has been raining like the dickens here.

From the Daily Yomiuri

After a long spell of dry weather, heavy downpours caused by a rain front moving south hit the Kinki, Chugoku and Shikoku regions Saturday, flooding roads and houses.

It was the first time the regions had experienced substantial rain since the rainy reason began on June 11.

Some areas received 40 millimeters to 50 millimeters of rain in an hour.

The Osaka District Meteorological Observatory said warm, humid air along a rain front extending along the coast of the Sea of Japan brought the heavy rains.

Warnings of heavy rains and flooding were issued at 5:30 a.m. by the prefectural governments of Kagawa and Tokushima, which had been suffering a serious water shortage. About 50 millimeters of rain was recorded in the prefectures in an hour.

Takamatsu had recorded 153 millimeters as of 1 p.m. Saturday; 207 millimeters were recorded in Mima, Tokushima Prefecture; 69 millimeters in Wakayama and 32 millimeters in Osaka.

[canman]

First it wan't enough rain. Now its too much. I mean come on people what do you expect. You pray and ask for rain, it comes and then all this belly aching.

[dimwit]

First it wan't enough rain. Now its too much. I mean come on people what do you expect. You pray and ask for rain, it comes and then all this belly aching.

Rain is a fickle commodity out here in Western Japan, and both Takamatsu and Matsuyama in Shikoku are particularly vulnerable because they have no major rivers. In Matsuyama the capacity of the dam is limited and during the summer one can expect an average drawdown of about 1.5% per day. Because of the rainy season, this does not present much of a problem. However, during June of this year Matsuyama received 26 mm of rainfall - great if you live in Saskatchewan, not great if you are doing intensive rice farming.
This month so far we have had over 200 mm in the first three days hence the flooding.

Personally, I prefer flooding to drought. Flooding does kill people, but it is selective and when you consider the people do die in floods they were usually doing something highly stupid. In addition, surprise flash rain storm are fun, as they turn high school students into wet T-shirt competitors.