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That’s a very quick shot of the garden outside of the lobby at our hotel.

We did some shopping today, both in Tokyo Station and in Ginza. It rained a bit but somehow we managed to avoid most of the rain.

It rained some this morning but was clear and sunny from around 11:00AM onwards. Quoting from the Daily Camera:

Meteorologist Matt Kelsch said the yearly precipitation total hit 30.14 inches Monday. The previous record for moisture in Boulder in a single year was 29.93 inches, set in 1995, he said. … This year, almost 15 inches of the record 30.13 inches fell between Monday evening and Friday in the deadly storm that caused a 100-year flood across Boulder County. That amount doubled Boulder’s previous record for a single storm, which was 7.37 inches of rain May 5-8, 1969. read more

It’s just after noon, and it’s raining again. I suppose this rainfall graph probably tells the story as well as I can; I just grabbed it from NCAR’s site:

Yes, nearly 1.3 inches of rain this morning. That would be a lot of rain for around here even if the ground wasn’t already saturated. However, that reminds me that I haven’t yet posted this graph, which I grabbed at 10:22PM on 9/12/2013:

So, about 10 inches of rain accumulated in a 24-hour window at the beginning of the storm. That’s at a station near here and hence several miles out from the mountains. I’ve read that some areas received 15 inches of rain. read more

We got a break from the rain last night and today, but it’s supposed to rain more tonight–maybe a lot more. We spent more or less the entire day doing stuff to either recover from the previous days or prepare for the coming days, such as some very hurried yard work, laundry, etc. I spent most of the time installing a sump pump. It sounds like an easy-enough job but, as always, the devil is in the details. The most devilish detail in this case was the fact that the pump moves water with such vigor that my initial test resulted in a sudden flow of water out of the floor drain rather than into it. Not good. I ended up re-routing the exhaust tube down a 4″ drain pipe, which was actually a better solution for several reasons. (Good thing Tracie’s dad was home after the failed test. I was at a loss for solutions and was wondering whether I’d have to cut a hole through the side of the house. He suggested looking for a drainpipe stub.) read more

First of all, thanks again to everyone who has asked about our well-being. We are fine, all things considered. It is undeniable that we are in a region officially declared to be a disaster/emergency/apocalypse/whatever, but our house is not in any of the most perilous locations, i.e. the locations that have been getting lots of attention in the media. In the past I would have said that we’re miles away from any sort of flooding danger, but now it would be silly to say that considering that there are roads closed less than a mile from us, and roads further from the canyon streams than here (most notably I-25) are also closed. It is accurate to say that we are not in imminent danger, though. read more

It’s 1:55AM and Boulder is flooding. There are evacuations in the mountains near town, several structures up there have collapsed, and one dorm on campus is knee-deep in water. The tag #boulderflood is number 3 on Twitter’s trending list. The NCAR station a few miles from here has logged 5.5 inches in the last 24 hours:

Something I never even imagined seeing: road closures near our house, which is far away from the designated flood zone:

So far everything’s okay here at the house. The road closures near here must be the result of combined runoff, not of Boulder Creek rising (which, according to a Tweet I saw, is “… running at 4,000 CFS. Normal flow runs around 300-350 CFS.”). All of that 5.5″ of water has to go somewhere, after all. There’s a big irrigation ditch just downhill from the house, so I’m not particularly worried. read more

It’s been raining like crazy for the last two days. I don’t recall seeing a weather alert like this before:

Statement as of 9:46 PM MDT on September 11, 2013

* Flash Flood Warning for…
northwestern Jefferson County in northeast Colorado…
Boulder County in northeast Colorado…

* until 1245 am MDT

* at 945 PM MDT… local law enforcement reported a continuation of
flash flooding in Boulder County… with numerous Road closures and
stalled vehicles due to flooding. Up to 3.5 inches of rain has
already fallen in southeast Boulder… with widespread rainfall of
1.5 to 2.5 inches over the rest of the warned area. Another one to
as much as 2 inches of rain can be expected in some locations
before decreasing. read more

I will freely admit that I have not paid a lot of attention to this, but now it has my attention (or at least more of my attention). Boulder is attempting to divest itself of its existing energy sources, replacing them with its own, for the purpose of reducing its environmental impact. A plan has been constructed which is not only viable for Boulder, but for other communities in the country. There’s a rather stirring video about it here. It’s worth watching even if you don’t live in the area. read more

Here’s a brief but interesting TED Talk about how sound affects us. The second half is less interesting than the first, but it does make me think about the times I’ve walked out of a store because they’re playing some sort of horrible music too loudly.

(Thanks to Ray Maxwell at Eventide for bringing this to my attention.)

That’s me amongst the flowers in the back yard, bracketed by bells we’ve brought back from Japan. The flowers in front of me bear some mention because they’re actually not supposed to be there. They sprouted from seeds which fell from potted plants on the deck above and they’re growing in what’s supposed to be plant-free gravel. If I was smart, I would have pulled them when they came up, because their roots are certainly damaging the landscaping cloth which is underneath the gravel. Indeed, I did pull a number of other plants that sprouted in the same area. However, I am fond of cosmos, and couldn’t bring myself to pull the little ones. So, now I have a small forest of them. I’ve been trying to cut the dead flowers before they go to seed, in hopes of not encouraging another forest next year, but we can all guess about my willpower to exterminate that forest when it’s young. read more