The Rainy- and Cyclone Season

Humans always talk or whine about the weather, don't we? I have yet to meet one person who is 100% satisfied with the weather 12 months in a year! When I settled here in the tropics, I had the fixed idea the inhabitants never complained about the weather - how wrong was I?! Mauritians whine as much about the weather as anyone else! :)

I grew up on a farm, where the weather - in the summer - always had an impact on harvesting whatever we had, especially during the autumn harvest; potatoes, oats and barley. If the fields were too wet, not only the grains were wet, it made difficulties for the harvester too. For me; that's all history.

After living here for almost 8 years, I have noticed February is the "worst" month of the year, when it comes to heat and humidity. A couple of days (Sunday) ago Le Morne (Southwest) had +34.4C / 93.9 F and Port Louis (the capital) +34C /93.2F. We are living halfway on the plateau, where it is always cooler; +29.7C / 85.4F. Add 90-100% humidity and almost calm; you get the idea! Suffocating! As far as I know, this is the hottest day so far this season. Our poor dogs and cat didn't know where to find the coolest place!

After such a hot and humid day, we were not surprised having a couple of "terrific" thunderstorms yesterday! Mauritians use to say "there's something wrong" when it's calm, because being an island it always blows here.

It's not easy to photograph the rain, but if you click on the photos, you'll see it better.

Rainwater pouring down the trunk of the coconut tree.

Fresh leaves of the passion fruit tree enjoying the rain (I believe!) :)

 Passion fruit leaves.

Rainwater pouring down the trunk of the bottle palm.



Filao tree with its long needles and cones glittering with raindrops after the rain.

Raindrops on Tristellateia leaves.



I would have loved going out in the hot, tropical rain taking more photos, but my camera is not waterproof - not a good idea after all!

Unstable weather today too, and we don't know how the tropical disturbance Northeast of the island evolves the next 24 hours.

An update; tropical cyclone "Bingiza" - as I mentioned here - killed 15 people and made 85000 homeless in Madagascar! (Le Matinal - February 22nd 2011)