Heatwave Alert: Thailand Expects 43C Weather and Severe Summer Storms

[Negita43]

For several years before and after Covid we have managed to not be in Thailand between March and June - this year we could not avoid being here and the temperature has been a big shock (i don't remember it like this when I first came in 2010. Also electricity prices have gone up significantly so running AC is expensive.

Definitely next year I will be out of the country maybe combine with my "not in the country for more than 180 days" plan!

[RPCVguy]

19 hours ago, dinsdale said:

I see lots of confused emojis to my quoted post. I suggest those who are confused look up the definition of what a heatwave actually is. What we are experiencing is not a heatwave within the definition. What it is is continuous highs at the higher end of April maximum temperatures. This is the unusual part. Maximums are not unusually high for April. 

I'm not one who has posted such emojis on your post. The definition of a heat wave was maybe created (in Europe and North America) to cover situations that are dangerous to the health of many people. Temperatures in those regions vary more widely than in the tropics. The tropics are both more consistent in temperatures and simply closer to the limits of what humans can tolerate metabolically. A true "Heat Wave" in the tropics would be physically far more dangerous to life than one in temperate climate zones.

I agree on what the current definition is for heat wave, but there is not currently a suitable English word for the Heat Index Danger Zone now being experienced daily over a wide region of SE Asia.
The Link I provided in my above comment, with images refines the standard HEAT INDEX by including Wind Chill.
That site calls their index a MISERY INDEX.
People can access the menu for making the site interactive by clicking the word "earth" at the bottom left. The advantage of the site is that it accesses satellite weather data and presents it as a map, easy to understand.
I only wish the colors in the grid at the right (by Berkeley Earth) and the colors of the map matched. What is Amber on the map is in the light red in the grid. The reason so many people are agreeing with the discomfort of this month is that the FEELS LIKE temperature and humidity has been persistently high for the month... I see since April 3rd.
Because the humidity will rise faster than temperatures will drop as the monsoon rains begin, we can expect that the danger zone conditions will migrate towards extreme danger conditions. Things will then cool down as sufficient rain absorbs the excess heat now stored in roadways and building structures.

[Photoguy21]

22 hours ago, dinsdale said:

Maybe but I'm guessing mid to late May. Next month is still going to be very hot with increasing humidity .

Definitely possible.

[dinsdale]

3 hours ago, RPCVguy said:

I'm not one who has posted such emojis on your post. The definition of a heat wave was maybe created (in Europe and North America) to cover situations that are dangerous to the health of many people. Temperatures in those regions vary more widely than in the tropics. The tropics are both more consistent in temperatures and simply closer to the limits of what humans can tolerate metabolically. A true "Heat Wave" in the tropics would be physically far more dangerous to life than one in temperate climate zones.

I agree on what the current definition is for heat wave, but there is not currently a suitable English word for the Heat Index Danger Zone now being experienced daily over a wide region of SE Asia.
The Link I provided in my above comment, with images refines the standard HEAT INDEX by including Wind Chill.
That site calls their index a MISERY INDEX.
People can access the menu for making the site interactive by clicking the word "earth" at the bottom left. The advantage of the site is that it accesses satellite weather data and presents it as a map, easy to understand.
I only wish the colors in the grid at the right (by Berkeley Earth) and the colors of the map matched. What is Amber on the map is in the light red in the grid. The reason so many people are agreeing with the discomfort of this month is that the FEELS LIKE temperature and humidity has been persistently high for the month... I see since April 3rd.
Because the humidity will rise faster than temperatures will drop as the monsoon rains begin, we can expect that the danger zone conditions will migrate towards extreme danger conditions. Things will then cool down as sufficient rain absorbs the excess heat now stored in roadways and building structures.

This is the definition of a heatwave from the Bureau of Meteorology in Australia:

http://www.bom.gov.au/metadata/catalogue/19115/ANZCW0503900601#:~:text=Abstract,climate and the recent past.

The Bureau of Meteorology defines a heatwave as three or more days in a row when both daytime and night-time temperatures are unusually high in relation to the local long-term climate and the recent past.

This falls within all definitions of a heatwave I have seen. I say again temperatures are within April maximums and thus not unusual. The unusual thing is it's everyday.

Edited April 27 by dinsdale

[Bobthegimp]

On 4/25/2024 at 4:22 PM, John Drake said:

 

What I find silly is the overnight low I see in western Bangkok every night is 28.  But you better enjoy it fast. Because as near as I can tell, it's only 28 for about five minutes or so before it climbs higher. Anyway, I suppose it's psychologically effective to think you're getting 28, even if it's gone in a flash.

 

The concrete jungle. 

[RPCVguy]

Interesting. This fits my desire to express warnings while satisfying the desire to avoid the term Eat Wave. 
The USA National Weather Service has posted an experimental coding for something they are labeling HeatRisk.
Unlike their chart of Heat Index, which calculates a number based upon Heat & Humidity or even the Misery Index that includes Wind Chill into the Heat Index, The HeatRisk  takes into consideration:

• How unusual the heat is for the time of the year
• The duration of the heat including both daytime and nighttime temperatures
• If those temperatures pose an elevated risk of heat-related impacts based on data from the CDC

Although I do not have access to anywhere near the amount of localized temperature and humidity data to begin to map Thailand's current situation, I suspect that the duration of elevated temperatures experienced this month in Thailand would be sufficient to apply the level 4 Magenta designation to them.
Unlike Heat Wave, which term has a definition of a specific number of degrees for a specific number of days, this designation can and does vary daily as is demonstrated in the mapping of the USA on different days this week as seen under the sub-menu for maps at:
https://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/heatrisk/