Rains to arrive in May, but season may be shortened by La Niña

By THE NATION

 

 

The Royal Irrigation Department (RID) will stop monitoring water shortages on Thursday (April 30), while the Thai Meteorological Department is expected to announce that the rainy season will arrive in the third week of May, RID’s deputy director general Taweesak Thanadechopol said on Wednesday (April 29).

 

The Meteorological Department expects rainfall this year to be approximately 5 percent lower, adding that rains should last from the end of May to end June before drying up in July and August due to the La Niña effect.

 

La Niña is known to disrupt typical regional and global weather patterns in a manner opposite to that of El Niño.

 

Despite the dry weather expected to be brought by La Niña, Taweesak said the volume of water in dams nationwide should be more than last year. Currently, some dams have approximately 121 million cubic metres of water due to recent rainfall in some areas.

 

However, RID is worried that 59 provinces may still face water shortages in the near future.

 

So far, the country’s 447 large and mid-sized reservoirs are 47 percent full, but only 11.891 billion cubic metres or 23 percent of the water can be used.

 

Also, as of Wednesday, 27 provinces across the country are suffering drought, the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation said.

 

Of the drought-hit provinces, seven are in the North, 10 in the Northeast and 10 in the Central and Western regions.

 

Source: https://www.nationthailand.com/news/30387010

 

-- © Copyright The Nation Thailand 2020-04-30

 

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31 minutes ago, snoop1130 said:

while the Thai Meteorological Department is expected to announce that the rainy season will arrive in the third week of May,

By order of the PM!!!

Finding it hard to get my head around this.

 

Bearing in mind that seasonal precipitation patterns differ in different parts of Thailand, where is this announcement referring to?

 

Normal (historical) precipitation pattern in the north of Thailand is for a few weeks of rain in March/April (referred to as the mango rains) and then the full rainy season from mid June to mid October.

 

Here in Chiang Mai this year the mango rains never materialised in March. The first rain of the year rain finally arrived at the end of April and we have been enjoying heavy rainfall these past few days. I had assumed this would last a couple of weeks.

 

So, is the current rainfall the very late, temporary, mango rain? Or is it the early start of the rainy season?

 

And is the Met Dept really predicting that this year the rainy season will start end of May and last only one month? What about resumption of rain after El Nina in September?

 

Does anyone have a clue?

 Taweesak Thanadechopol makes a tiny mistake. It is El Nino that enhances rain in South America and diminishes rain in SE Asia. La Nina does the opposite, so more rain than average in Thailand. Another mistake: at the moment the situation in the Pacific is Nino-neutral and it is expected to stay this way the rest of the year.

Cloudy but no proper rains in Pattaya. I seem to remember last year was the same. This time they should do whatever is needed to top up the local reservoirs or 2021 we'll be drinking dust again.

Take the money you are going to waste on Thai airlines and build reservoirs and pumping stations with it.

Edited May 1, 20206 yr by whiteman

2 hours ago, whiteman said:

Take the money you are going to waste on Thai airlines and build reservoirs and pumping stations with it.

You can build as many reservoirs and pumping stations as you wish but nobody controls the weather.

 

Bhumibol dam near Tak has less water this year than last year and much less than 2018. If you add the amount taken from boreholes you will need to have rains like we did in 2011.

6 hours ago, aonangkrabi said:

 Taweesak Thanadechopol makes a tiny mistake. It is El Nino that enhances rain in South America and diminishes rain in SE Asia. La Nina does the opposite, so more rain than average in Thailand. Another mistake: at the moment the situation in the Pacific is Nino-neutral and it is expected to stay this way the rest of the year.

Typical Thailand! They get everything a r s e about face!

Edited May 1, 20206 yr by SunsetT

The Chiang Mai rain is a government initiative to quell the smog.

9 hours ago, Antonymous said:

Does anyone have a clue?

In Thailand...?

 

Trick question?

 

 

1 hour ago, ParkerN said:

In Thailand...?

 

Trick question?

 

 

Can I call a friend?