No Rainy Season (?)

I wanted to wait another day to make this historic, but since it's clearly not going to rain today, let it go on record now: My sources say there was only one summer in recorded history in which the rainy season came to Tottori as late as 20 June. Since the soonest we're likely to see rain is tomorrow, that would mean--unless my sources are mistaken, and they sometimes are--that if that is actually the beginning of the rainy season, it will be the first time in history for it to start this late. Otherwise--and there has apparently been at least one precendent for the alternative scenario--there will be no rainy season at all.

Apparently, the East Asian rainy season is definted as 'persistent' rainfall for nearly two months, ending when pressure in the horse latitudes becomes high enough to suppress precipitation. By that definition, we haven't had enough of the doldrums to really humidify things in the usual way. We had a good few days of rain last week, and all the plants in our garden suddenly grew, but then all the cloud cover burned off and it has been moderately warm since then. It's nowhere near sweltering, though we might expect it to swelter within the next couple of weeks, rain or no.

Drought warnings are being issued throughout the nation. Water shortages, unusual as they are for Tottori, are certainly going to mean an increase in the price of produce available in local markets. Home water bills could go up as well.

We expect brief showers tomorrow and Saturday, but that's plain old rain, not rainy season rain. The next rain should be later in the week, but we all know how frequently forecasts change these days. This is the new normal.