Thailand to enter rainy season in mid-May

[The Hammer2021]

8 minutes ago, Ddbanksy said:

Absolutely  correct,they don't know what "Maintenance" mean's

Yes they do. It's a silly  vaguely racist assertion. My friend  takes her Merc for regular  maintenance. My British  friend Never takes his truck  for maintenance

[RandiRona]

40 minutes ago, kimamey said:

I wasn't here for a lot of that but I know my wife sent pictures from where she was helping out and I saw the pictures on here.

We bought our Honda Jazz that year and because of the flooding of some of the factories and stored new cars we had to wait 6 months for the car.  Then we had to wait 7 months for 2 thin metal plates with numbers on to put on either end. 

Yes it was really terrible. Really sorry to hear your personal experience with Flooding. Hope you and family doing well!

[paulikens]

it entered rainy season about 2 weeks ago it seems. 

[kimamey]

3 hours ago, The Hammer2021 said:

A predictable generalisation and like all generalisations not really true at all.

Well a lot of people mention something similar and I've seen it myself but if you know better then fine. 

[kimamey]

3 hours ago, RandiRona said:

Yes it was really terrible. Really sorry to hear your personal experience with Flooding. Hope you and family doing well!

Thanks. I wasn't bad for us unless you count waiting for a car but there was flooding and my wife helped out. Probably because she's a civil government worker and they tend to get sent out I think. Her office sent out a load of staff when one of them had part of her house blow down in a storm. 

[The Hammer2021]

59 minutes ago, kimamey said:

Well a lot of people mention something similar and I've seen it myself but if you know better then fine. 

I know for a  fact no generalisation is entirely true except  the generalisation that no generalisation is entirely true.

The use of innacurate generalisations to label people according to race is lazy thinking and simply prejudice or possibly worse.

Edited May 9, 2022 by The Hammer2021

[Thunglom]

People seem to confuse "weather" with "climate".

 

Thailand's climate eve with MMCC is pretty predictable. It may be that  there is and increase in extremes of weather.

A lot of Thailand's problems have arisen from unregulated development - in housing, roads, industry and agriculture, where infrastructure has not kept up with the changes they brought about. In the upper half of Thailand you get 3 seasons...cool dry (don't call it winter!), Hot and Wet...(or as some Thai people will say Hot, Very Hot and Too Hot)

In the South of Thailand the seasons tend to reduce to just 2 - hot and wet. There is very seldom any cool dry for more than a few days.

 

“I was there in Oct **** and the weather was fine." Is NOT a way to look at the weather.

I fact what you are looking t in climate which is really decided on the weather over the last century or eve more.

 

If you are planning a trip to any country, an anecdote telling you what the weather was like for a few days last year or several years ago does not help on its own – you need to look at the OVERALL picture to gauge how good or bad the weather is going to be.

 

All the personal anecdotal accounts of the weather do are give an impression if they are all taken together. That conclusion should be that October which is largely the wet season in Thailand can vary from day to day or week to week….
BUT statistically it is the WET season.

 

Different areas of Thailand very in intensity and there are some notable differences between the North and South and the Andaman coast and the south of the  Gulf of Siam.

 

There are 3 seasons in Thailand – cool/dry, hot and rainy. (Locals will tell you “Hot, Very Hot, Too Hot”!), In the South there is nearer 2 seasons a more Equatorial pattern

 

So when looking to book in a particular month the first thing to do is find out which of the 3 seasons you are looking at – Google this.

 

Basically ALL the weather in Thailand is tropical and subject to the South West and North Eastern monsoons. Thailand is largely in the ITCZ (Intertropical convergence zone). Here, trade winds of the northern and southern hemispheres come together and lead to the development of frequent thunderstorms and heavy rain as well as periods of drought.

 

The turnaround from Southwest to Northeast monsoon is usually right at the beginning of November. The northeast marks the start of the cool, dry season for most of Thailand – it tends to begin earlier in the North.

If this change is sooner or later it will affect your October weather.

 

The Southwest comes back in May and brings the hot and wet seasons. The most notably affected is the South Andaman Krabi, Phuket etc, but Koh Chang way over on the East near Cambodia is the wettest island in Thailand in August September. On the mainland Chantaburi and Trat are very wet too.

Pattaya has just about the driest wet season in Thailand.

The 3 seasons are most pronounced in Central and Northern Thailand, the South maintains higher rainfall as both monsoons are travelling over sea.

 

Samui sadly tends to get the wet just about all year round. 

It gets the tail-end of the rain from the Southwest monsoon from May to November. This results is severe flooding on mainland Suratthani and flash flooding on the islands. Samui is shielded from the worst of the southwest monsoon, but it continues to get wet. But then the turnaround brings the North west monsoon that picks up moisture over the gulf and drops it on Samui which drops it on Samui from October through to January. February and March are by far the driest months on Samui before the hot/wet weather gradually restarts. ...having said that, I've carried out flood relief in Suratthani in mid-January.

 

So far MMCC has not seriously changed the 3 seasons in Thailand – the start and end dates may be changing by about 3 or 4 days but the basic pattern is still there. What is affected is the extremity of the variations – heavier rain, longer droughts, Samui had bush fires; much more common in the North.

 

So don’t listen to anecdotal evidence on its own, it gives a false impression, look at the climate and seasons rather than anecdotes first of all then check out some long range weather forecasts. Relate that to the location you have chosen and you will get a reasonable idea of what the weather will be like. Finally add a bit of luck.

Remember that rain in the tropics is not like rain in a temperate climate. Terry Pratchett once described it as “not so much like rain, more like water cut into strips”……but in Thailand it seldom lasts all day for long periods – you would be vey unlucky not to get periods of sun in between.

 

I lived on both Samui and on the Gulf for nearly 20 years and I can say that by the end of October, I had had quite enough rain….and then all of a sudden November comes, the weather breaks, the sun comes out and in Chonburi the weather gets perfect. Travelling North is a delight and you forget what a pain the wet season had become. On soggy  Samui of course you then get a wet May most years and then a double whammy from October November and December the  wettest period of the year……

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 9, 2022 by Thunglom

[zzaa09]

9 hours ago, hotchilli said:

It started last week.

Some might suggest that it began in earnest around Songkran [locale dependent]. 

Semantics and particular observations might differ, as it might for every seasonal cycle. 

[rott]

I don't think it was the driest of dry seasons in most parts. 

[rott]

6 hours ago, The Hammer2021 said:

Yes they do. It's a silly  vaguely racist assertion. My friend  takes her Merc for regular  maintenance. My British  friend Never takes his truck  for maintenance

Well I suppose that proves it then. Irony alert. 

 

You object to generalisations but base your own racist assertion on one Thai and one Brit. 

[actonion]

19 hours ago, kimamey said:

We've had bouts of rain up here including yesterday. We had one a couple of weeks ago and I saw a guy near the market clearing the drains but that was after it flooded. I suspect this is the normal procedure. 

 

I remember a comment on here a few years ago that was related to vehicle maintenance but I think it fits here as well. "To most of us maintenance is what we do to stop a vehicle breaking down.  To Thais its what you do after it breaks down. 

 

Re; Thai's and maintenance, is one of a few reasons i will never fly with Thai air

 

18 hours ago, The Hammer2021 said:

A predictable generalisation and like all generalisations not really true at all.

In my experience of living in Thailand for 22 years,  its not a general prediction at all  ..its a fact

[zzaa09]

31 minutes ago, actonion said:

Re; Thai's and maintenance, is one of a few reasons i will never fly with Thai air

 

In my experience of living in Thailand for 22 years,  its not a general prediction at all  ..its a fact

The natural cycles and irregularities have little to do with human induced notions. 

[crazykopite]

So the last 7 days of torrential rain that I have had to endure is only a taste of things to come ☹️☹️☹️☹️☹️☹️☹️☹️☹️

[kimamey]

On 5/9/2022 at 5:09 PM, The Hammer2021 said:

I know for a  fact no generalisation is entirely true except  the generalisation that no generalisation is entirely true.

The use of innacurate generalisations to label people according to race is lazy thinking and simply prejudice or possibly worse.

That's pretty much the definition of a generalisation and it also means it's not entirely untrue. If it were  then it would be a fact rather than a generalisation.

 

Most days I have to go to the local market part of which is in a closed off road. It slopes down from the main road and then after a slight dip it's pretty flat for about 100 metres or so. This always has a problem when it rains. Because I'm often there, if it rains in the late afternoon I see when the drains are blocked and I also see them being cleared. I can't remember ever seeing them cleared before the rainy season. Maybe I just keep missing it but that's my experience. It's maintenance after the fact rather than before. The quote about vehicle maintenance was just that and I assume it was based on some experience. I know in my own case that I've heard Thais saying they haven't had their bike or car serviced because why spend the money when there's nothing wrong with it. My brother in law had worn out brake pads on the bike we'd given him. We got them fixed because as far as he was concerned they still worked and he hadn't considered the fact that he was damaging the discs.

 

A lack of foresight is something I see in the UK as well but it just seems far more common here. There are examples on the road where if I see a driver signalling in advance of changing lane rather than one flash at the same time or just afterwards then it's a rarity. Before anyone tries to tell me I don't know the rules in Thailand I've just done the online driving course and I do know that a driver should signal 30 metres before manoeuvring. There's also those drivers who race along a 2 lane road even though they can see that both lanes have slow moving traffic so they have to brake sharply. They don't wear helmets or seatbelts presumably because they can't think ahead to what might happen if they have an accident either through their fault or someone else.

 

I don't know what it's like all over Thailand at any one time but then neither do you. This just what I've seen and others have mentioned as well.

 

On a slightly different note I've noticed in my area roads getting flooded because the rice fields on either side where the water used to flow have been filled in to plant something else. Mainly bananas I think. That's not unusual but it seems to be happening more now. Maybe it's down to the relative price of rice and bananas.

[kimamey]

On 5/10/2022 at 6:44 AM, actonion said:

Re; Thai's and maintenance, is one of a few reasons i will never fly with Thai air

 

In my experience of living in Thailand for 22 years,  its not a general prediction at all  ..its a fact

I would have thought that you're OK on aircraft as if their maintenance wasn't up to scratch then they wouldn't be able to fly into many other counties. The same would go for pilots. If they were allowed to show the same lack of standards as they do with drivers of vehicles and bikes then yes you should worry. The difference is that aircraft and pilots have to match the standards of other countries.