When the socks in my shoes got wet

For the past two days, I've been soaked wet going home. As if by an appointed time, and twice in a row at that, just when I was about to disembark from the bus I was riding at, that the rains begin to pour. And for the past two days, it was a tremendous downpour. I feel as if the heaven's are having fun, like splashing bucketloads of water into people. Ahh, but on a different light, I can see people rhythmically throtting and going in the same direction for a cover. As if choreographed, people would open their umbrellas in a coordinated beat. But if Gene Kelly is a Filipino, would he be caught waddling the flooded streets of Manila in his tuxedo, singing in the rain?

Apparently, there's a typhoon, and his (or is it her) name is MARCE. I wonder how they name typhoon names. I think that in the 1990's PAGASA asked the public for suggestions because prior to it, all typhoon names are female names. And baroque names at that, like those of Bebeng, Undang and Bising.  It's really archaic.

I just love the way meteorologists would describe movements and status of the weather. Here’s one example of the latest weather report about Typhoon Marce:

Issued At: 5:00 p.m., 10 September 2008
Synopsis : At 2:00 p.m. today, Typhoon "MARCE" was located based on radar, satellite
and surface data at 230 kms East of Basco, Batanes (20.3°N 124.2°E) with
maximum sustained winds of 150 kph near the center and gustiness of up to
185 kph. It is forecast to move North Northwest at 07 kph.

It said Marce was “located” as if at one time or another, the typhoon get lost and again found. Like a game of hide and seek? I love the word “gustiness” too. It gives personality to the typhoon. Gusty!

In PAGASA's site, they have an archive of typhoon tracks (or directions) in jpeg format from year 2001 to 2005. On an average for those period, we had 19 typhoons per year. There is also a link for the "Most Destructive Tropical Cyclones" from 1948 to 2000, categorized monthly, with at least two or three of the most destructive typhoons per month. From that period, Typhoon Nitang (31 Aug to 04 Sep. 1984) had the most casualties with 1,492 while Typhoon Ruping (10 to 14 Nov. 1990) did the most damage in the amount of Php 10,276.5M, followed by Typhoon Rosing (30 Oct. - 04 Nov. 1995) at Php 9,330.4M. But I think Milenyo in 2006 was the most violent typhoon I have ever witnessed. Never before have I seen so many trees uprooted and billboards tumbled. I saw a billboard in Magallanes toppled on top of a bus, and even the large “S” sign in SM’s Mall of Asia went down.

Still, I prefer rainy days than the searing heat and the humid air summer brings.