I was in Japan for five months between early September of last year and January 31. A friend came by to water my plants while I was gone, but other than that the house stayed vacant, with the doors and windows naturally shut tight. When I got back in February and opened my door, it seemed like the house had a moldy smell to it. I had heard that it rained constantly while I was gone, so I wondered if that was the reason for it.
I looked up the rainfall amount to see how it compared with the previous year.
When I did, I discovered that the number of rainy days and rainfall had indeed far exceeded last summer. November 2022, for example, had just eight days of rain and twenty millimeters of precipitation. November 2023 had six times the rainfall—133 millimeters—and 14 days of rain.
January 2023 recorded 52 millimeters over eight days, while this January (2024) had a whopping 245 millimeters (five times last year) and 21 rainy days.
Twenty-one days of rain in January? Unbelievable!
And it didn’t stop in January. Even February had 141 millimeters of rainfall over 16 rainy days, while March had 161 millimeters and 20 rainy days. That means there were just ten days (less than two weeks!) without rain each month over the summer. When I looked back over the numbers, it was clear that we had way more rain and many more rainy days than last year. The Gold Coast climate is similar to Okinawa’s, though the humidity is lower than in Japan—so the summers tend to feel comparatively dry and comfortable. But with this much rain, the stifling humidity was no surprise. Although summers are typically hot, it usually cools off nicely in the evenings. But lately even the nights have been hot and muggy—probably because of the humidity as well.
With that many rainy days in a row, I was worried about humidity and mold.
Anxious, I started pulling infrequently used things out of cabinets and closets—and sure enough, there was mold. It had never been a concern before despite living close to the ocean, so I was shocked to find it growing on my favorite shoes and handbags.
For the first time since moving to Australia, I bought some desiccant.
I saw that a major supermarket chain called Big W had some on sale, but when I showed up they had just one package sitting forlornly on the shelf. I guess lots of people were battling the humidity this summer like I was. I then headed straight to Daiso. All the things that would be 100 yen in Japan are three dollars and thirty cents Australian (about 323 yen), but they’re still cheaper than they would be at other stores, so I stocked up on a bunch of dehumidifying closet supplies, shoe boxes, and so on—about twenty in all. I chuckled darkly, figuring that the rain would probably dry up now that I had bought everything. And sure enough—we started heading into fall weather as soon as April arrived, with the rainy days dropping off and the mornings and evenings getting cool. After all that fuss about the humidity, it was suddenly the time of year to worry about things drying out. All those dehumidifying products I bought will probably just sit around until next summer.

Unusual weather like this isn’t limited to Australia—it’s happening all over the world. Maybe the weather will get really strange and we’ll even get snowfall on the Gold Coast someday.