When it Rains, it Pours

For my whole life I have always lived in locales that have four seasons.  In Alaska, winter seems to be longer than the other seasons, but each season is distinct in its own way.  Living in an equatorial climate is pretty much as opposite as a girl can get from the temperatures and seasons of Alaska.  In Kuala Lumpur, they say there are two seasons (wet and dry), but it seems like it’s been pretty consistent to me since I arrived.  Thunder showers usually arrive in the afternoon, but once in a while you’ll wake up to the sounds of pouring rain in the morning.  The rains never seem to last more than an hour or so, and they roll in and out very quickly.  And when it rains here, it really rains!  Being used to the cold light drizzle of Alaska, it’s fascinating to me to look out the window and literally see sheets of rain coming from the sky, not to mention the sounds of soul rattling booming-crashing thunder like I’ve never heard before. 

When I first arrived, these quick storms were accompanied by majestic displays of lightening that I wish I could capture on camera.  Always having lived in places where lightening was feared for its potential to start wildfires, here I am able to enjoy the light show that is painted across the sky with the cityscape in the foreground.

View from the 23rd floor before a storm.

View from the 23rd floor during a storm.  The view is obscured purely by the volume of water falling from the sky, no fog.

The thought of river front property has always been intriguing to me, as I have focused a bulk of my young existence on studying rivers, and here in Kuala Lumpur, I finally have just that.  Although it’s not the type of river front property I have always imagined, it’s fun for a hydrology geek like me to observe the changes in the urban river out my window with the coming and going of the intense rains. 

My urban river to the right.  You can tell that its been raining when there is a steady stream of trash, or rubbish as they would say here, floating down stream.