That heatwave isn't normal

[shocky2012]

I've been in Thailand since 2010. Went through alot of raining, hot and cold seasons but I've never been through something like that.

I feel like I'm a walking deep fried chicken everytime I go out (I'm in Nakhon Sawan).

Honestly -- is it this bad where you are?

[AreYouGerman]

[Jingthing]

Yes.

It's not even close to normal but wondering if this is the new normal. 

[KhunLA]

Not sure I'd say it's any worse than previous years.  It has seemed to shifted a bit, I think arriving later and staying till later in the year.  This year and last, as prior, seemed to rain at end of April and definitely by now, first week of May.

 

Always HOT ... DAMN HOT, till the rains arrive 😎 

 

No prob, AC house to AC car, to AC shopping, restaurant or coffee shop.   35-40-45C, and we wouldn't change much for either temp.   Still get out and walk the dog, in the shade and just after sunset.

 

Last year the rains didn't show up down here / PKK till after the 20th of May.   As I remember talking to and telling my brother not to come this time of years.   He & wife finish & fly out of Nam tomorrow, and were going to be in Bangkok tomorrow.   For 3 days, then Chiang Mai 😲😲😲 

 

So it would be crap pollution, or, if rains show up as forecast on the 9th, maybe rained out   Talk about rolling the dice with no chance of winning.

 

Cancelled that, thankfully, and rescheduled for Nov this year.  Should be real nice, and pollution hopefully hasn't started yet 

[bob smith]

have a cornetto and embrace it!!

 

bob.

[AreYouGerman]

In Germany they simple relabeled 'summer' as 'heat wave'.

[AreYouGerman]

Wherever this 'heat wave' currently is, please send it my way.

 

[Will B Good]

22 minutes ago, AreYouGerman said:

No it doesn't.....the solar constant is.....would you believe pretty constant.

[Will B Good]

26 minutes ago, shocky2012 said:

I've been in Thailand since 2010. Went through alot of raining, hot and cold seasons but I've never been through something like that.

I feel like I'm a walking deep fried chicken everytime I go out (I'm in Nakhon Sawan).

Honestly -- is it this bad where you are?

Yes....very bad.

 

Been here on and off since 1990.....purely anecdotal, but it seemed until recently, 'winters' were 30/31, summers 35/36......this seems to have jumped to 35/36 and 40/41.

[AreYouGerman]

6 minutes ago, Will B Good said:

No it doesn't.....the solar constant is.....would you believe pretty constant.

 

That's pretty... funny. The solar constant is.... would you believe, not a constant!

 

[UWEB]

13 minutes ago, AreYouGerman said:

In Germany they simple relabeled 'summer' as 'heat wave'.

You are really have no idea where you are talking about.

[AreYouGerman]

1 minute ago, UWEB said:

You are really have no idea where you are talking about.

 

Mostly about Germany.

[John Drake]

It's not the daytime highs that have been so much a problem as the nightly lows, which are sticking around 30 and 31 in the western edge of Bangkok. Evening has been utterly miserable, especially as the roof tiles absorb direct sun and start radiating heat at night, too. Just want to see a few clouds and afternoon showers to cool of the roof.

[anchadian]

 

AFrench friend in Bangkok posted a few days ago that he was thankful for the man who invented the air conditioning machine (There is a debate whether in fact it was the American man by the family name of Carrier or not but would not get into that here).... อ่านข่าวต้นฉบับได้ที่ : https://www.khaosodenglish.com/opinion/2024/05/05/opinion-bangkoks-heat-wave-needs-to-be-addressed-now/

[Dmaxdan]

I've lived outside of Chiang Mai for 15 years now. Pretty much every one of those years has had a 6-8 week period between the end of March and the middle of May where the temperatures have regularly hit 40+C.

But is it a hotter than previous years? Perhaps a little but in my opinion not enough to constantly moan about it. It's called the hot season for a reason. Something that you just have to endure every year.

Soon the summer storms will kick in causing wide spread destruction, flooding and potential injuries. So out of the frying pan, into the fire...

[scubascuba3]

I'd say it's worse this year in Pattaya than previous few years, doesn't mean next year will be similar or worse

[AnotherOneHere]

I lived here for 12 years. Never owned or used an aircon. 1 week ago I got one installed. 🥵 Which sums it up for me.

[Gweiloman]

13 minutes ago, Dmaxdan said:

I've lived outside of Chiang Mai for 15 years now. Pretty much every one of those years has had a 6-8 week period between the end of March and the middle of May where the temperatures have regularly hit 40+C.

But is it a hotter than previous years? Perhaps a little but in my opinion not enough to constantly moan about it. It's called the hot season for a reason. Something that you just have to endure every year.

Soon the summer storms will kick in causing wide spread destruction, flooding and potential injuries. So out of the frying pan, into the fire...

I live about 15 kms north of CM, near Maejo. In previous years, it was hot during the day but cools down in the evenings so much so that we only needed the ac half the time. This year, the temperature stays consistently above 30degrees even at night and it’s ac on every night. Even the cold showers are hotter than what my instant water heater can produce.

 

This report (not overly interesting I might add) mentions how part of the problem is that overnight temperatures are not dropping thus not allowing our bodies to cool down.

 

[Crossy]

Our local star is certainly pretty active these days, just how much this is affecting us I'm not sure but I'm getting 2 or 3 of these notifications every day: -

 

[chercheur888]

I guess unfortunately it is the new normal.

[doctormann]

32 minutes ago, AreYouGerman said:

 

That's pretty... funny. The solar constant is.... would you believe, not a constant!

 

 

Quite right.  There's a thing called the 11-year solar cycle and we may be presently approaching the solar maximum.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_cycle

[bkk6060]

Yes, global warming everyone should go buy an electric car and stop eating meat.

[rattlesnake]

The heat is normal for the season, turn off your TV.

 

 

 

https://www.timeanddate.com/weather/thailand/bangkok/historic

[Tropicalevo]

6 minutes ago, Gweiloman said:

This report (not overly interesting I might add) mentions how part of the problem is that overnight temperatures are not dropping thus not allowing our bodies to cool down.

Very true here on Samui.

 

Daytime highs are 37 C plus, slightly higher than previous years.

But night time lows at midnight are still 31 to 32 C. (Higher in my bedroom.)

The bigger change this year is the pollution here on the islands. Rarely seen in previous years - especially in May.

We are not in the same league as the rest of Thailand, but it has been noticeable this year.

[freeworld]

I would say its quite hot, hotter than normal. Never experienced it this hot before.

[Marcous]

Here's the historical data for Chiang Mai for April for the last 3 years. 

2024

2023

2022

 

 

 

https://www.wunderground.com/history/monthly/th/mueang-chiang-mai/VTCC/date/2022-4

[Marcous]

If you look at the average temp, it looks hotter this year to me.

[ChipButty]

You should be in my house right the wife has got the oven on baking bread warm air is blowing through the house, I've got all the doors open fans on

[Presnock]

I have lived at times in Thailand from 1972 and VN 66-68 and yeah the summers were hot and the rainy season were very wet.  I also lived in the PI 6 years and their summer was pretty warm too even though they had sea breezes just about all the time.  Lately there have been a lot of weather station reports about the extended hot times in many locations. Most of the reports state that the EL NINO phenomenom causes the trade winds to blow from the east to the west and La NIna from the west to the east which affects the hot or cool too.  In addition, I watched a German report on their hot/dry season which they attribute to the gobal heating/slowing of the jet stream.  Besides slowing, they said that the jet stream is pausing for several days in certain spots - that means the a high pressure system (hot dry) period might be in place for several days or a low pressure (cooler and rain) could remain in one spot for several days of rains (possibly flooding that area).  In any case, this year the droughts have worsened too with many rivers, lakes, dams, waterfalls, reservoirs have totally dried up affecting water levels for cities, islands, farms etc.  The extended 40 degree for over a week or more has reportedly been recorded for the first time and as mentioned by someone else, the nighttime temperatures haven't gone down much so the higher temperatures appear earlier and ealier each day and last longer in the afternoon/evening.  This most "weather experts" are harbinger of the future weather patterns.  In addition, last week the local weather official on the TNN morning news at 6/7/8 o'clock times indicated that the rainy season should begin here during the last 2 weeks of this month.  However, this morning's show the same official said that the rainy season would now probably begin during the first two weeks of next month and that for the first two months or so the rains will probably be light and from August till the end possbily a couple of rain storms plus more nomal rainy days.  Thank whoever invented the a/c.

[Etaoin Shrdlu]

There is a case to be made that solar cycles affect weather on earth, but the cycles are fairly consistent over that 11 year period with solar energy deviating by about 0.1 percent from peak to trough.

 

https://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=115207

 

This would not explain continually rising temperature over a longer stretch of time.

 

Then there are the Milankovitch cycles that don't seem to fit the rapid rise in global temperatures.

 

https://science.nasa.gov/science-research/earth-science/why-milankovitch-orbital-cycles-cant-explain-earths-current-warming/

 

Until a different external effect can be identified, we are left with finding an earthbound driver of increasing temperatures. So far, it seems that the scientific consensus is an increase CO2 in the atmosphere.