From dry to wet

The Philippine summer, or more appropriately the dry season, ended with the arrival of a super typhoon in the Philippine area of responsibility last week. Luzon was fortunate to have been spared by the typhoon when its trajectory brought it instead along a path that headed to Okinawa and the Japanese mainlands. Fortunately, too, the typhoon weakened into a tropical depression before it hit Japan and also spared that country from more misery from another of nature's reminders of how powerful it truly is.

For me, the signs of the transition from the dry season to the wet season was already evident in the days prior to the conception of typhoon Chedeng (international codename: Songda). It was already raining in parts of Metro Manila in the afternoons, usually stronger in the area near the La Mesa watershed including Novaliches and the Rizal towns of San Mateo and Rodriguez (Montalban). From the clouds visible from the Blue Ridge section of C5, I could also guess that there were probably rains in the eastern parts of Antipolo and probably the towns of Tanay and Teresa on the other side of the Sierra Madre mountains.

I personally experienced the rains in unceremonious terms one Sunday afternoon as I drove from my in-laws home in Novaliches to my parents' home in Cainta. It was zero visibility all throughout my drive along Commonwealth Avenue and I had to turn on all my lights including my blinkers (hazard lights) like all the other vehicles in traffic that afternoon. The downpour was so much and over a wide area that I believe I passed through at least 9 flooded sections of road including portions of Commonwealth Avenue, Katipunan Avenue Marcos Highway and Imelda Avenue. Most of these were familiar sections as they were the most likely to have floods especially the flash floods brought about by the heavy rains that afternoon. For Marcos Highway, I was a bit surprised because the waters were quite deep but I understood the situation given the unfinished road and drainage works along that highway. To be fair, the work was continuous, it was just that the rainfall was so intense. I just hope that when the project is completed, it would be able to handle such downpours.

So I guess it's farewell to summer now, at least what we in the Philippines term as summer. For now, I should look forward to when the dry season will begin again. That is probably in the period that coincides with autumn in temperate countries of the northern hemisphere. There is the prospect of traveling with the Clairvoyant to the Bay Area and perhaps explore and experience places we have been planning to see for some time now.