Stocky

Glad to hear Ranode survived.

Most surprisingly my daughter made it back to Hat Yai from Prachuap, arriving at midnight last night, wife picked her up from the bus station unscathed, her bus got through OK.

On 12/28/2018 at 7:42 PM, Stocky said:

I've done an 'Upspeed' request via the TOT e-Service website, will see how long it takes.

They switched us to the 200/100 package yesterday. Got a call to confirm everything and was told to reboot the modem, and bingo.

12 hours ago, seahorse said:

But not Hat Yai? 

The storm hasn't really affected Hat Yai except for lots of rain, though you need also remember Hat Yai airport doubles as an airbase, Wing 56, so I guess it should be equipped for all weather operations.

3 hours ago, phuketsub said:

The eye is due East offshore of Ranode District here in Songkhla now now and the situation here is very windy, with very sustained winds around 50kph, but nothing like hurricane force. Still, these are the strongest sustained winds I have experienced in 30 years living in Thailand.

Seems landfall will split the German and NOAA models, just north of NST, but not as far north a Samui. Hat Yai airport was working fine, just rain and a strong breeze in Hat Yai this morning, plenty of rain overnight. Flight out was lumpy but nothing particularly bad.

No doubt the North South Highway will be cut by floods in poor old Thung Song, the locals must have webbed feet round there.

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The latest update from the Joint Typhoon Warning website shows the storm did indeed take a right turn. So the Canadian model is likely to be wrong, but will the American or German models prove more accurate?

interesting using the Ventusky website, you can toggle between  the various weather models. They give you three options, IKON the German model still sends the storm through Surat Thani, the GFS American NOAA model has it land at NST, whilst the GEM Canadian model thinks it will land further south just north of Songkhla, yours and my worst nightmare.

IKON or GFS should mean Hat Yai airport is fine, GEM would probably close it. Guess we'll see who's right tomorrow.

22 hours ago, NCC1701A said:

So I have asked May and her friend May to stay with me.

Mayday, Mayday...

10 minutes ago, Lacessit said:

65 km/hr? I've played golf in worse than that in Melbourne.

It's more the 1m + of rainfall that's the worry.

Floods, flash floods, landslides etc.

1 hour ago, hydraides said:

Looks like Phuket is going to get direct hit

Bugger Phuket, Songkhla and Hat Yai are in the firing line first.

17 minutes ago, phuketsub said:

I am still confused as to why all the storm track projections have the system moving northwest as it reaches the coast. It's been consistently heading due west and as such should make landfall in Kota Baru soon, though many agencies are still predicting landfall in NST. Seems weird to me, but perhaps they know something I don't. Anyway, hopefully we won't get hit too hard here in Ranode...

 

The forecaster at the JTWC seem confident it will swing NW within the next 12hrs.

https://pzal.ndbc.noaa.gov/collab/jtwc/products/wp3618prog.txt

I do hope they're wrong, I've a flight out of Hat Yai tomorrow and it's looking increasingly like that's not going to happen.

4 hours ago, phuketsub said:

Thus far, nothing whatsoever on the ground to distinguish this system from a typical, rainy day in the monsoon season.

 

The center track seems to be continuing due west, not NNW as predicted. Good news for Songkhla and the other Gulf Coast provinces.

 

Been raining in Hat Yai since midnight last night, just steady rain.

The change in the storm track is a little worrying, landfall has moved steadily south from Chumphon, to Surat Thani, to NST, now Songkhla.  I do hope that trend continues and it ends up at Kota Bharu - apologies to the residents of Kota Bharu but 'inshallah'.

2 hours ago, Kelsall said:

LOL.  This poll has 3 choices.  Reelected in 2020 has the largest number of votes.  Math's not your strong point.  (neither is spelling)

Maths is English, math is American.

There are indeed three options to the poll, and the majority of respondents opted not to reelect.

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4 hours ago, muratremix said:

There is no way Frankfurt and London pings will be as low as yours if connection goes via Bangkok.

No idea the route it takes, but that's what I get

1 hour ago, Kron said:

Was not Typhoon Gay in 1989 the last Tropical storm to hit the south. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhoon_Gay_(1989)

Ah, but that was a Cat 1 Typhoon, no longer a Tropical Storm ????  whoever did the research for the article probably just Googled 'Gulf of Thailand Tropical Storm' and got 1962.

I see Tropical Depression 36 is now a named Tropical Storm Pabuk, this far out there's a fair degree of uncertainty as to where it will end up, the Tropical Storm Risk website gives probability plots, below is the 120hr tropical storm wind probabilities.

8 minutes ago, muratremix said:

To get these pings to Frankfurt and London, TOT must skip Bangkok main gateway and connect you to Satun submarine cable point, which would save 10ms + 10ms trip to Bangkok and save pingtime, which is not common with other ISPs (3bb and AIS still goes through Bangkok from Samui)

in that case, good job TOT!

Maybe, but if I ping Prince Songkhla University here in Hat Yai it's 29ms, so longer than to TOT Bangkok. I doubt we get to skip the Bangkok gateway.

1 hour ago, Brunolem said:

Isn't it supposed to be the cool and dry season in this part of the world?

Not Southern Thailand, NE Monsoon runs late September/ early October until late December/ early January.

On 12/31/2018 at 8:30 AM, Lantern said:

Hope he learned a lesson from that mindless act.

Umm, spray 'Cockney Dave' next time, and check for the CCTV.

TOT Fiber 100/50 from Hat Yai:

Bangkok - 19ms

Singapore - 38ms

Frankfurt - 175ms

London - 191ms

Seattle - 243ms

New York - 264ms

The problem is with the whole transport system. Introducing meter taxis always seems a good idea but it conflicts with the existing transport operators. Then when there's conflict, rather than fixing the problems there's some suitable Thai compromise.

Hat Yai introduced meter taxis a few years ago. First issue was with the tuk-tuk drivers, the meter fares were often less than the tuk-tuk fare and you travelled in a clean a/c cab. After various confrontations it was agreed that meter taxis can't pick-up on the street, you need to phone and book. Next was the clash with the AOT airport limo service, that operates a flat fare Bht300 from the airport to town, a similar meter fare would be half that. So after various fist fights the compromise was that the meter taxis operate on a Bht250 flat fare from the airport to town.

Needless to say after all this the Hat Yai meter taxis are that in name only, they never put the meter on, you negotiate a price.

I've done an 'Upspeed' request via the TOT e-Service website, will see how long it takes.

That's Hat Yai Station area, just outside Robinsons, no where near the Songkhla mermaid. Lots of army types in town last night, all the usual roadblocks are fully manned.

As for Prawit 'Nahligah' Wongsuwan, I doubt he has the faintest clue what's going on in Bangkok let alone the South.

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17 hours ago, thedemon said:

That's a shame. Songkhla's mermaid is was almost as awe-inspiring as Copenhagen's.

I'm sure it will be back in one piece before long. I was there last week, and the old girl was looking a bit worn and battered, so a good opportunity for her to be repaired and renovated.

Increased security in Hat Yai last night, it's always a visible presence, but rather more than usual, police, army and commandos. The central area is already blocked off for the New Year Countdown, and they were busy putting the stages up, all conducted under watchful eyes. Town is full of tourists, has been busy the last couple of weeks.