The Taiwan Weather Thread 2017

Your from Colorado? Me too :grinning:

They flew a bunch of swans out last night and brought the west shore docks up on the banks. The demarcation line has also been dragged into shore. No rentals today.

Hi Taidong, what are flying termites?

Flying ants or termites, dunno, but I had to kick out from my place 4 or 5 of the a few nights ago.

A kind of flying ant that hatches en masse and is known to burrow into the human brain and lay eggs there

When they hatch, it’s recommended to turn all the lights on to confuse them and keep your orifices sealed - especially ears and anus.

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Uh Oh, I better ready the hairspray and lighter.

All facetious joking aside, what are they?

In Danshui we had what seemed like an usually small eruption of them a couple of weeks ago. I’m not sure if that’s all we’re going to get, or if it was an advance party.

I don’t really know what they are. The sky and ground is covered with, well, ants with wings. Usually a few manage to crawl between the screen pane and the window, and my cats have fun slowing dismembering them. The flying critters don’t bite, but it’s a little disgusting getting them all over you, and trying to make sure you’re only stepping on five or six at a time, rather than a couple dozen.

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Hi LostInAsia, so they are just like harmless flying ants? I am just asking because I am new to Taipei. We had flying ants in Colorado :slight_smile:

Are they any different than ones in the US?

Yeah, sorry gteencelot…

As LIA said…

They are known as the Formosan subterranean termite - or ‘super-termite’ - a single colony can contain millions and consume 400g of wood a day

They get some mass hatching signal and billions take flight just after dark - generally once or twice a year around this time - actually earlier, usually, and it may have already happened.

They are attracted to light so kill all lights and meditate for 45 minutes or so if that’s practical. It’s all over by then and you can turn the lights back on

The flying stage is short lived and they drop their wings and go off to burrow into some wood and mate and lay eggs and get ready for next year

They have invaded parts of the US but not Colorado, so far as i know

LIA, I wonder if the subdued hatching was due to it having been a relatively dry year up north - it was wet here and we had a bumper crop

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Looks like the floodgates have been opened at Shimen Dam.

That was the one I thought was dead. In a matter of seconds, the whole bus stop was overcome. 6 people there. Granpa, granny and the kid were swept away. 3 young women managed to climb the roof of the bus stop, and held on even though it was made of glass. Talking about holding on, Granny had her bags and purse with her while the kid was being given CPR on the sidewalk.

There are shots of the McD across the street from the stop, all kitchen flooded.

This was downtown Keelung. Unbelievable.

It seems like in terms of number of people affected, from my observation, Keelung might’ve taken the crown. I didn’t hear too many bad things about Sanchong, despite it flooding pretty bad there.

I had a friend who commutes from Keelung to Taipei for work and her Gogoro was completely submerged in water. She went back to it Friday afternoon to see it still there, but it was very clear it was submerged in water with all the dirty stains on the rear views.

They were showing a small neighborhood scooter workshop on the news. The guy had received 70 flooded scooters and was power washing the insides, working overtime, as people needed to go to work.

However, a Gogoro, I doubt it would survive flooding of electronic components. RIP.

Funny you should say that…

http://www.appledaily.com.tw/realtimenews/article/new/20170602/1131659/

According to the official website specs, they are water proofed at IPX5, 30mm from the tires.

So it’s basically not good to own a Gogoro in any place with substantial rain.

30 cm of water is xiao case, indeed, problem is most scooters, along with people and cars, were carried away by the water, completely overcome.

It says there that Gogoro stated that the battery is sealed and the components water proof. That would be amazing, and another sales advantage, given that this kind of incidents will increase in frequency in the future.

Of course, even Gogoro encourages people NOT to drive in flooded waters.

Honestly, it hasn’t changed my mind about buying the second gen Gogoro.

That water skiing Gogoro is quite the image though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PNP9GoC1Aw

For most cases PCB boards from submerged electronics can be baked to expel moisture and used again, bear in mind that most of boards are designed knowing the harsh environment they will be exposed to and thus protected accordingly. If power was running through the board some components are likely toast, still a better scenario than allowing water to enter a running engine though. All in all it’s likely easier to recover a Gogoro that’s been submerged than a gasoline scooter that’s been submerged.

In Taipei it almost always happens the same week as Computex.
And up around my place, they get through screens and everything.

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