Author Topic: Feast of the Senses -Innisfail 18 April 2021  (Read 1435 times)

Mike T

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Feast of the Senses -Innisfail 18 April 2021
« on: April 19, 2021, 05:50:21 AM »
Went to Innisfail yesterday 80km south of Cairns to see feast of the senses. It has been moved from March to April to avoid cyclone risk I assume and reduce the chance of rain as Innisfail routinely gets well over 10000mm (40 inches) of rain in March. The forecast was good and when we arrived in Innisfail there were big crowds, free entry and lots of stalls. Many were community information stalls, crafts, local produce and cooking of all types and food stalls. The fruit selections and displays were not as generous as in some previous years as it was half way through autumn not a peak fruit time. The organisers did very well and there was a high level of interest in tropical fruits. There were trees for sale of various fruits and many landcare style stalls with native trees as well as herb and vegie places.







Then the rain came before noon and everyone went for shelter. Then it deluged and was washed out.Torrential rain chased us all the way back to Cairns. I have had around 275mm (11 inches) of rain since lunch time yesterday and I'm a dustbowl compared to Innisfail so their dry season is off to a very wet start. Anyway great effort Innisfail and luckily there was plenty of activity before the 'inclement' weather put a damper on proceedings.

Mike T

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Re: Feast of the Senses -Innisfail 18 April 2021
« Reply #1 on: April 19, 2021, 05:53:47 AM »


The rain was not predicted although a drier than usual April was forecast. Well forecasts for Cairns and Innisfail have flipped and rain is forecast for both places every day until the end of April now. Good for the trees I suppose.

Gone tropo

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Re: Feast of the Senses -Innisfail 18 April 2021
« Reply #2 on: April 19, 2021, 06:24:10 AM »
BOM is losing the plot this was supposed to be a La Niña wet season with huge rainfall whilst January had slightly above average at most places in fnq, February was below average across most and March was a complete failure and until one day ago April was looking dry too but like you say they have changed their forecasts significantly in the last 48 hours..... the May to July forecast is supposed to be very dry but I don’t believe anything they say anymore.

Felipe

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Re: Feast of the Senses -Innisfail 18 April 2021
« Reply #3 on: April 19, 2021, 08:19:09 AM »
What a fruit display!!  :o :P

ben mango

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Re: Feast of the Senses -Innisfail 18 April 2021
« Reply #4 on: April 19, 2021, 09:51:56 AM »
Wow even had dulcis and Dabai. 2 things that I don’t think even exist in Hawaii.

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Re: Feast of the Senses -Innisfail 18 April 2021
« Reply #5 on: April 19, 2021, 10:54:55 AM »
God dangit Mike- You live the cherished life for sure

Mike T

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Re: Feast of the Senses -Innisfail 18 April 2021
« Reply #6 on: April 19, 2021, 09:49:49 PM »
I am here to complain about the rain again. My 11 inches is now 17 inches of rain in less than 48 hours and it is still raining. Double the monthly average and after the rainy season should have eased off and its a festival of mud.

Mike T

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Re: Feast of the Senses -Innisfail 18 April 2021
« Reply #7 on: April 20, 2021, 08:57:26 PM »
Outa season rain just keeps on coming and 22 inches (550mm) in 3 days so far. What is going on with the weather and that is over double the previous 3 day record for April.

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Re: Feast of the Senses -Innisfail 18 April 2021
« Reply #8 on: April 20, 2021, 09:06:57 PM »
The raining season in my area comes 2 months earlier. That's not a good sign I think.

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Re: Feast of the Senses -Innisfail 18 April 2021
« Reply #9 on: April 20, 2021, 09:09:11 PM »
Mike we have "only" had 432mm at my place in last 3 days still big rain though good to see

Mike T

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Re: Feast of the Senses -Innisfail 18 April 2021
« Reply #10 on: April 20, 2021, 09:44:35 PM »
Sounds like a dustbowl tropo and once in a while Cairns can get more than the districts that are usually wetter.. It seems to be getting more erratic when you look at decades of records.

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Re: Feast of the Senses -Innisfail 18 April 2021
« Reply #11 on: April 20, 2021, 10:45:15 PM »
Im a bit of a weather fanatic and live on BOM you are right mike cairns occasionally puts its hand in the ring against the heavyweights like it has with this little episode, but over the year it will still be reeled in for the yearly average by the big guns, my area is not quite in the heavyweight maybe light heavy weight with a 3000mm a year average. Unfortunately the only current offical BOM site over the river is cape trib with an annual average of approx 4056mm a year average but I know of a few locals who privately record rainfall closer to the base of Thornton’s peak who average over 5000mm. Which squashes babinda 4259mm and Tully 4075mm
« Last Edit: April 20, 2021, 10:59:08 PM by Gone tropo »

Mike T

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Re: Feast of the Senses -Innisfail 18 April 2021
« Reply #12 on: April 20, 2021, 11:47:09 PM »
They are towns remember and I think Trib itseld is a feather less than 4000mm. If we measured Happy Valley behind Babinda, some places near Topaz and especially if we included Bellenden Ker then there would be higher annual averages.

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Re: Feast of the Senses -Innisfail 18 April 2021
« Reply #13 on: April 21, 2021, 12:59:09 AM »
They are towns remember and I think Trib itseld is a feather less than 4000mm. If we measured Happy Valley behind Babinda, some places near Topaz and especially if we included Bellenden Ker then there would be higher annual averages.

Mike cape trib store average from BOM's offical records as per the climate data online feature is 4056.9mm per year recording from 1939, you are correct that areas around babinda and topaz itself are higher than babinda and certainly bellenden ker has the highest offical average of a BOM station in aus however there is no station on top of thortons peak in the daintree so one can only speculate that it would certainly match bellenden ker and bartle frere.

Mike T

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Re: Feast of the Senses -Innisfail 18 April 2021
« Reply #14 on: April 21, 2021, 04:48:46 AM »
8800mm is an awful lot for Bellenden Ker and Bartle frere may be higher again. South Bell Peak will also be through the roof. Above Mossman Gorge is about 4m higher than Thornton so will be high also. Yes we can only guess. Didnt know Trib is over 4000 now as it must have been bumped up in the last few years.
There are really wet places where measured averages exceed 10m  year like a few towns in India that have a few crazy monsoon months. Some of the peaks in Hawaii also have crazy high rainfall and I think orographic rain naxes out at about 2000m alt. Some places in Colombia get crazy amounts of convection and are over 10m also.
The equatorial wet tropical fruit trees like durian and mangosteen do better around 2000mm to 4000mm per year with dry times instead of wet all the time.

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Re: Feast of the Senses -Innisfail 18 April 2021
« Reply #15 on: April 22, 2021, 02:32:08 PM »
All that rain can’t be good for the ripening of the durians

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Re: Feast of the Senses -Innisfail 18 April 2021
« Reply #16 on: June 25, 2021, 12:13:57 AM »
All that rain can’t be good for the ripening of the durians


They love it, if you don't give em plenty of water they need the water from the rain, it's not a "single" monsoon climate plant with distinct dry/wet season needs, Sarawak for instance have two monsoons "The northeast monsoon, usually between November and February, brings heavy rain, while the southwest monsoon from June to October is usually milder."
Some people (local farmers) who think less rain is better, water their durians in the dry and so they are proving themselves wrong, they will also add some during the summer monsoon.
Also have a look at the average rainy days throughout the year where d. zib is naturalized. D. Zib needs lots of rain and that spread out over the year.

As an example: average rainfall in Sarawak is 3,300 millimetres and 4,600 millimetres, https://sarawak.gov.my/web/home/article_view/159/176/

so no issue at all with ripening of the fruit. Poor management, insects etc causes issue with the fruit.
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