MESmith

Just close all the roads leading out of Bangkok tomorrow, until after songkran. Then see what the difference from last year is....

Where did the Chinese tourists go?

Home?

Wind & rain south of SK

Finished already

Back again

Tell them more farangs will come to the hotel if it has wildlife. And more guests means more money. $$$ are the ONLY thing that will motivate an Isaan Thai.

Yeah you'll be packed to the rafters if you advertise an abundance of snakes, huge black scorpions, 3-inch beetles

and bats.

No Simon can just lie about the type of wildlife at his hotel and post photos downloaded from the internet. Works for the TAT....why shouldn't it work for Simon...

Herds of migrating wildebeest should bring increased bookings.

Light rain south of San Kamphaeng right now. Better than a kick in the teeth, I suppose.

What's with the tmd rain radar. Used to show green as rain, but when it shows green now, it's blue skies. This image from now, but where I live is shown as red, but the rain is only light.

RAIN.jpg

Wind's up 'n all. Which is nice...

The radar has been down occasionally and the last plots are displayed. Check out the time of the plot and you might find it was not current.

It has been a rough thunder storm period here with lots of power outages and the area phone system getting taken out by a lightning strike. Three days of no internet as they wired in a whole new terminal box.

I always check the times & the images are up to date. It's as if green no longer represents rain. Smoke? Different from last year.

They sail like they drive.

What a surprise

I never kill snakes, even the deadly ones. Mind you, my dogs don't follow my example & frequently leave ripped apart snakes on the lawn for me to clear up. Lost count of the number of cobras. Most recent one was a banded krait. I know snakes keep the rodent population in check, but the dogs do a similar job.

Light rain south of San Kamphaeng right now. Better than a kick in the teeth, I suppose.

What's with the tmd rain radar. Used to show green as rain, but when it shows green now, it's blue skies. This image from now, but where I live is shown as red, but the rain is only light.

Wind's up 'n all. Which is nice...

Gecko's. Hand formed charcoal cooked burgers.

"Hand Formed" ??? Whats that? sounds like something to be avoided at all costs!

( NOTE. Burgers are flattish and circular. Are hand formed ones a different shape, if so they wont fit the buns !

Thought he was talking about the charcoal. Ouch

http://www.chiangmaicitynews.com/news.php?id=3565

for those who didn't notice Vagabond's cryptic thread

From the guardian newspaper, UK

Air pollution has become the world's single biggest environmental health risk, linked to around 7 million – or nearly one in eight deaths in 2012 – according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).


The new figures are more than double previous estimates and suggest that outdoor pollution from traffic fumes and coal-burning, and indoor pollution from wood and coal stoves, kills more people than smoking, road deaths and diabetes combined.


Around 80% of the 3.7 million deaths from outdoor pollution came as a result of stroke and heart disease, 11% from lung diseases and 6% from cancers. The vast majority were in Asia, with 180,000 in the Americas and Europe combined, said the WHO.

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/mar/25/air-pollution-single-biggest-environmental-health-risk-who

The farmers are doing what has been done for generations. It is the responsibility of the politicians to educate the farmers, teach them better ways of clearing. One cannot blame the farmers who are simple folks, but uneducated and poor.

This is a government responsibility to cure the problem and help the farmers.

The same thing happens in Australia - farmers burning off their stubble getting ready for their next crop.

I wouldn't call Aussie farmers "simple folks" or "uneducated" or "poor"

It probably is the quickest and cheapest way to clear their land...

How many people are hospitalized as a result of that stubble burning in good old aus? How much smog does it create? Or is it a completely different geography / meteorological picture?

Got to look at the cost of the burning. Cheap for the farmer might not be cheap for everyone else....

Some of the thai sources are saying this is a cloud seeded rain. Is this possible?

There has been a request put in on the 21st so maybe.

Chiang Mai provincial governor Wichien Phutthiwinyu has asked the Air Force to dispatch aircraft to release water into the air. The governor has also asked the Department of Royal Rainmaking and Agricultural Aviation to plan cloud seeding operations to alleviate the haze situation.

So far this year, 669 forest fires have burned through 6,212 rai of land in Chiang Mai; most of the burnt areas were within national forest preserves.- See more at: http://www.pattayamail.com/news/chiang-mai-haze-worst-level-for-year-lampang-sees-40-degrees-celsius-36072#sthash.y2oUZmeB.dpuf

The kaset rain making aircraft have been up for at least the last few weeks. I saw one land at about about 16:30 going over Big C Hangdong road.

This was a storm that was forecast & headed over from Hanoi direction. Perhaps seeding helps when atmospheric conditions are right.

Actually looks like Lamphun is being wiped off the map.

Screenshot from 2014-03-22 18:40:07.png

Very small but intense storm south of San Kamphaeng. Hurricane force winds & torrential rain for a minute or so

Raining still.

Q-con bricks may be what you're after.

I made a rare trip into town today, and road works somewhere on the south side of the moat were causing near gridlock up Thapae Rd, along Kotchasarn and onto the southside. I headed down Sridonchai so didn't see what the cause was. Hope it was essential work & not just painting road markings causing all that stationary traffic spewing fumes on the worst smog day so far this year.

If they moved that place out onto one of the ring roads, with ample parking, the supermarkets would be up in arms

A bit of wind late yesterday afternoon cleared the air & could see the mountains east of us. No such luck today

Bought my Hatari unit last week from Home Pro. They were giving 1 free filter as a promotion, so maybe they ran out. They had a stack of Hatari purifiers & a cupboard full of extra filters. The new filters are 888 baht (old model 500baht).

Lazada were selling the replacement filters last time I looked. I would imagine the Hatari filters are easier to obtain in Thailand than imported ones.

Time to confiscate Chelsea FC from that russian fella & tell him to pack his bags

Prefer to celebrate St George's Day myself. Why pretend to be oirish just to get pi$$ed.

in other words you will get pissed on St Georges Day..

Doubt it. Just don't feel the need to pretend to be irish. Lots of saint days year round, why make a fuss when it's got nothing to do with where you come from. Let the paddys have their fun, just nothing to do with me.

Thick, thick, thick. Today was the worse I have seen it this year. Heavy white haze all the way from Mae Hia to Chiang Mai University. At CMU could not see Doi Suthep temple.

PM10 at Yupparaj of 131, at City Hall 129. Max safe level is 120. Still not that high relative to previous years for this month. 172 at Lampang, highest in the country.

Coming in from the north today, we thought CM was fairly clear!

Really bad SK way. Tons to do in the garden, but my eyes don't like it

Prefer to celebrate St George's Day myself. Why pretend to be oirish just to get pi$$ed.