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So what is it? A weather experiment? Why the use of a former US military base is necessary? Why the mention of "disaster relief"? Thailand needs US GOVT. to help it study weather? If so, then why not cooperate through the normal university/relevant govt. agencies, why does this have to be linked with the use of military base on a background of US military expansion in SE Asia?

At the very best this is a poor PR job by both country's governments...

Why the use of a former US military base is necessary?

Because of the long runway available, ER-2 is not exactly a STOL (Short Take-Off and Landing) aircraft.

Why the mention of "disaster relief"?

This has nothing to do with the NASA project, just happened to come up at the same time.

Thailand needs US GOVT. to help it study weather?

YES, because it does not have access to aircraft with that high altitude capacity.

If so, then why not cooperate through the normal university/relevant govt. agencies

I, for one, do not know of any university with access to aircraft with that high altitude capacity, and NASA IS a "relevant govt. agency".

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Thanks for the info, UG!

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Cats can be spayed when they're much younger than 2 years old. At that time, a cat would have had several litters of kittens! We've had just one female cat, and I believe she was spayed at around 9-10 months.

If I recall correctly, Dr Nook recommends minimum 6 months for male cats and 8 months for females. The reason for the difference being that it is a much 'larger' (i.e. more invasive) surgery for females. Several of my breeder friends claim that a female should have been in heat at least once before spaying.

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I have always used Dr Nook. Her animal hospital is on Chang Klan road, not far from Pantip Plaza. She always has Frontline (flea/tick treatment) in stock.

She has spayed/neutered five of my cats and does their regular check-ups as well. Very good and speaks excellent English, too.

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A family lose their 2 daughter at the same time, in a tragic way, but we still have the thai apologist that gonna swear that thailand is safer in anyway than any occident country... Indeed for them Business is more important

Just a reminder to these fool: There are more murder in thailand alone than in all west and central european country ALL TOGETHER.

Yes you read it well: more homicide in thailand than in 25 european country all together!

The number of deaths from homicide in EU25 was 4 743 in 2005,

EU25 comprised Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands,

Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovak Republic,

and Slovenia.

source and you have around 500 million people in these 25 europeans country and less than 5000 homicide.

while in thailand alone the number of homicide is between 5400 to 6000...

But some cynical people will come and remind us business is business.

Another comparison (which does not require mental arithmetic) is the homicide rate (homicides per 100,000 people) in different countries. Here are the rates for two countries in 2008:

Thailand: 5.897

United States of America: 5.220

(Source: http://data.un.org/Data.aspx?d=UNODC&f=tableCode%3a1 )

To me the diference is not that dramatic, in particular since we are comparing a supposedly developed country with one in the "third world".

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here

A nice map, but last time I looked Pratu Chiang Mai was not on Moon Meuang. Have they moved the gate or the road?

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I visited Doi Inthanon yesterday. The temperature at the Air Force installation on the top was 20 degrees (Celsius). Of course, in December it gets much colder, there's even frost on occasion.

I agree with the poster above who said that if you want 20-25 degrees the year around, Thailand is not for you.

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Red shirts call for justice

Pravit Rojanaphruk

The Nation on Sunday

...

The mood was different from a similar event held one year ago, as the Pheu Thai Party is now in power - thanks to the red shirts' support. Some of the group's leaders are now MPs and one is a minister.

"Last year there was still a climate of fear. Today, we can freely express ourselves," said Veera Siriprasert.

Umm ... One year ago, PTP were in power.

Sent from my shoe phone

In what country?

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The exact wording is, "Application of stay is permitted up to (date). Applicant must leave the Kingdom within the date specified herein. Offenders will be prosecuted."

Imagine the following appended to the second sentennce, i.e. after 'herein' and before the full stop: , unless this permit is extended before or on that date

I hope this answers your question.

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An error message of "E-16" means your subscription has expired. Ring them and sort it out.

My message is as follows:

"E16-4 Service is currently scrambled"

I went to the Truevisions office and was informed that I need a new box, i.e. it's not an expired subscription. When I asked why they did not inform me (and others) before any coding change, they said "We tried to call you". A big fat lie! Finally they showed me a mobile phone number they said they had called. It was not my number, nor my ex-wife's (who left Thailand three years ago), nor my house keeper's. They probably just invented a number right then and there.

Anyone interested can read today's "Post box" in the newspaper that we are not allowed to quote.

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Im loving the rain, but (yes, sorry, there is a but) i lament the extremes of these two seasons. If its hot is REALLY HOT, rarely a break, just blisteringly hot. and when it does come to the end of that heat wave it doesnt just rain, IT RAINS!!

BUT, better than UK's all-seasons-in-one-day for sure.

And the same seasons every day...

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What's wrong with the pinned thread?

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May he rest in peace. My sincerest condolences to his family in Indonesia, in Australia and here in Chiang Mai.

Ian was a strong man with a soft heart. One of the nicest fellows that I have ever met!

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I know this thread has been inactive for a while, but you all seem to know what you're talking about so its worth a try. I work for a local NGO and we have a few dogs that live at my organization's office. They're not street dogs, but they were left behind for us to take care of by owners who moved to Bangkok when my organization moved in. They're really lovely dogs and make me miss my family's dogs back in the states so much.

Well, anyways, the youngest one has got a bad case of the fleas. He's been scratching and knawing at himself so much his fur has all fallen out on his hind legs. The question is, would it be worth it to take him to the vet? I'm willing to take him and cover the cost, but I understand the fleas are equally an environmental problem, so would it be worth it to treat just his fleas if we don't take the additional measures to rid the house and yard of fleas too (ie fumigation)?

I hate seeing the way dogs are treated here and I'd love to help this one if I can. Any suggestions or information would be much appreciated

I would take him to a vet asap. Not only can they rid your dog of the fleas, but they can also supply medication (e.g. Frontline) that will keep the fleas away in the future, regardless of the environmental infestation.

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[...]

I have, long ago, raised the issue here, on TV CM's various weather-pollution threads, of seasonal variations in wind patterns, and the annual "high-pollution" season here, and have never found a satisfactory source of information on them, yet: although, it does seem a common assumption is: that the nature of the Ping Valley can be considered a "bowl," and that Chiang Mai does, at times, reach "inversion layer" conditions where the air is trapped.

An assumption I "buy."

[...]

When I first started taking an interest in the Chiang Mai pollution issues, back in 2007/2008, this was the 'conventional wisdom' on the forum. At the time I thought it sounded intuitively reasonable and went along with the hypothesis.

However, starting in 2009 the PCD has been posting data from a lot more measuring stations in the Upper North. Assuming that the mountains surrounding Chiang Mai on three sides serve to 'lock in' pollution in the 'bowl', one would expect pollution levels outside the 'bowl' to be lower than inside it. Admitting that we still only have four (or even three) years of data, it still seems that the opposite is true:

As you can see from the graph, the average pollution level during the 'hazy season' in Chiang Mai is actually the lowest in the region. To me this can most likely be interpreted as the mountains shielding Chiang Mai from pollution coming from the outside, rather than locking it in. Seeing that the most polluted provinces are Mae Hong Son and Chiang Rai, it appears that the major pollution culprit would be Myanmar. (The levels for Mae Sai look downright scary, but there is still not enough data from there to draw any far-reaching conclusions.)

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PS I have excluded Phrae from my graph since there's only three years of data available from there, and the hazy season of the first year (2010) looks very suspicious.

41.38 degrees at 13:00 hours today:

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I just noticed that the days of the week on this chart are in abbreviated Swedish language usage.

Is that all you have changed on the chart(s), Priceless?

Just kidding...keep your shirt on.

Here's the English language version:

Indeed 41.38 C at 1300.

Don't blame me, blame Windows! (I wish I could find an easy work-around...)

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41.38 degrees at 13:00 hours today:

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Question: There is no rain in the forecast for the next week or so. Can anyone there in CM speculate on whether or not the air will return to 120+ levels soon? I'm wondering if the last rains soaked the ground so much that burning is not possible, or will it be "burning as usual" throughout Sonkgran, leading to very bad air right after?

I wouldn't dare make a forecast. I would however be very surprised if we see another 120+ day before February of next year, at the earliest.

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O am I right in guessing that based on that graph on average the PM10 would meet the EU standards of less that 50 for 330 days.

No, unfortunately that is not the case, in particulat because the graph includes a lot of data from the earlier years. You might not believe it after March of this year, but Chiang Mai has been on a very positive trend since at least 2004. In spite of this trend, we are not yet (if ever) at the level stipulated by the EU standard. Neither are large portions of the EU, as indicated by the following quote from the latest (2011) EU Air Quality Report (LV is the Limit Value, i.e.not more than 35 exceedences of 50 µg/m3 per year):

'In 2009, the PM10 24-hour LV was exceeded at 30 % of traffic sites, 31 % of urban background sites, 18 % of 'other' sites (mostly industrial) and even at 6 % of rural sites. The highest concentration measured in the EU was almost three times the LV, and in EEA-32 countries almost four times the LV.'

What is often overlooked in discussions on this forum is that the EU has two standards for PM10 pollution, one concerning 24-hour averages and one concerning yearly averages. The EU limit for yearly average is 40 µg/m3, a level Chiang Mai achieved in 2008 (38.4) and 2011 (33.5) and only slightly exceeded in 2006 (40.5) and 2009 (41.6).

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Priceless, we could probably do with a post on how many months or days CM exceeds other standards such as 50ppm. It would be interesting to see how many days are really more acceptable.

Last year (i.e. 2011) there were 284 observations below or equal to 50 µg/m³, 55 observations >50 µg/m³ and 26 missing observations.

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last year was a really good one but that is interesting. THanks

Well, you asked for 50 µg/m³, which I didn't have ready-made If you don't mind a graph (a lot of people seem to do that), here you can see the percentage of different PM10 concentrations over the last ten years and a bit, 3,283 observations. The mean is 46.2 µg/m³ and the median (i.e. half are higher, half are lower) is 34.7:

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Priceless, we could probably do with a post on how many months or days CM exceeds other standards such as 50ppm. It would be interesting to see how many days are really more acceptable.

Last year (i.e. 2011) there were 284 observations below or equal to 50 µg/m³, 55 observations >50 µg/m³ and 26 missing observations.

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Saying the USA has a limit of 150, as in the above quote, makes the Thai limit of 120 look quite good, does it not?

But the US limit of 150 is a limit that, to quote http://www.epa.gov/air/criteria.html, is a limit that can "Not to be exceeded more than once per year on average over 3 years".

What relation does that have to the Thai limit of 120, presumably per 24h average? What is the point of comparing these two very different limits? Hell if I know.

The Thai limit may not ever be exceeded. That in fact it is, puts Thailand in the same group with USA and EU that don't live up to their limits, either. (E.g. 20-25% of the urban EU population live in areas where the 35 times per year llimit is exceeded.)

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My apologies. You appear to be right and I was a bit quick when saying that.

Apologies accepted

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For those with wider interests than standards for 24-hour average pollution levels, here is some information on yearly averages;

These figures are for 2008 and Chiang Mai was, and has remained since, in the group of cities in the WHO Intermediate Target 2 (IT-2), i.e. among the ~20% 'best'.

(Source: http://cleanairiniti.../AQ_in_Asia.pdf )

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I think you may have missed this post:

And you, Winnie, might have missed the fact that this list is selective. It shows mostly countries with higher limits and omits countries that have adopted the 50 μg/m3 limit to create the impression that the 50 μg/m3 limit is exceptional, which is clearly not the case.

Besides, my question is about the rationale behind the 120 μg/m3 limit, and not about which countries are doing better/worse. The list seems to communicate "oh well, things are worse in Cameroon", but this is hardly a justification.

P.S.: Besides, as Priceless pointed out, the limits of various countries are applied differently, so they cannot be compared easily.

Cheers, CMExpat

The EU limit is excluded from my list because it is not a 24-hour average limit, but rather a limit on the 10^th percentile, i.e. the 36^th highest value of the year (with, I reiterate, no limit on how high the 35 higher values may be). I would appreciate if you specified in which other ways the list is ''selective'.

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