Typhoon Morakot

It's 11:30pm and we're in the midst of Typhoon Morakot—"Emerald" in the Thai language. It's certainly been a jewel for me, because we had a typhoon day off today (like a snow day in the US or Canada).

This is proving to be a slow-moving typhoon; the eye hasn't even hit landfall yet. By tomorrow it's predicted that the eye will pass directly over Taoyuan, where I live, and that means...another day off!

Besides the days off, though, we really need the water. It's been a dryer-than-normal season, and our resevoirs were just reaching water-rationing levels. Morokat will definitely help the situation; all of Taiwan is under an Extreme Torrential Rainfall Warning: 350mm+ (14+ inches) of rainfall within 24 hours. The mountain areas have already received over 700mm (27 inches).