High Tides In May ? !

[rogerdee123]

I've been in Thiland for more than 30 years and I've never seen the river flooding (from high tides) in May before. Usually this happens in November.

OK we had floods in April in 1993 (I think) bgut that was due to heavy downpours of rain. They were fishing on Rama IV near the DUsit Thani.

But I fear this tidal surge is a foreboding of climate change or something.

They say that Bangkok will be flooded if climate change is a reality (which I believe it is).

[Gumballl]

I think pretty much everyone agrees the climate is changing (i.e. it is getting hotter). Statistics are showing that. However not everyone agrees to what is causing the climate change. Some think it is a natural occurrence, others think that man-made pollution is to blame. Either way we all need to adapt. Latest headlines from Thailand indicate that the country is immune from global-warming. That should give you some comfort.

[jeebusjones]

Actually Gumball, pretty much all genuine scientists have agreed for decades that the current climate change is being caused by human activity.

The idea that it's occurring naturally is a propaganda tool used by governments/business who are too stingy to clean up their acts. No one who's really studied the issue takes that idea seriously.

Just glad Thaland is "so far away from the icecaps that it won't be affected." But there are flood warnings this week for areas along the Chao Praya, no?

[Pomthai]

I'm not disputing effects of global warming etc etc. But the recent high tides... theres nothing unusual about them. It was simply a high spring tide, combined with the weather ie low pressure weather (make sea levels rise, thats what a storm surge is during hurricanes typhoons etc), plus the southwest monsoon had just kicked in pretty hard pushing extra water up the gulf and north.

Check the tide tables Here you will see it was predicted as a 3.5 which is 0.4 - 0.5 of a metre higher then an average. Tide tables are a mathematical calculation and can be predicted in advance. The official quoting the there were unusually high tides got it wrong. He wouldn't have found it so unusual if he'd bothered to look at a tide table.

Edited May 20, 2007 by Pomthai