Solid drizzle here up by the zoo. Quite the wet winter season so far. You can blame us as we washed the car and the motorcycle yesterday!

Raining very hard near the airport right now.

In my 6 years here I can't remember this happening in December before

Not complaining though, it may cool things down a little

I am sure if I asked the local car wash for a rain check in winter they would laugh at me. Can't believe how many times it rains after washing the car .

Drizzle for about an hour here in Sanpuloie but easing to a spit.

Garden is happy!

We hit a good storm last week on a motorcycle ride up north and hunkered down in Mae Salong for a day of rain. Tourists from Bangkok were gathered around in the morning watching the winds push the clouds over the mountains. A bit colder and it would have been snow so they might get a white Christmas up there yet!

Suprised! Rain in Sansainoi as well.

We have a high pressure coming over us to thank for this. I won't have to water everything outside today. 2.5 mm rain here near the airport (so far?)

A pre-dawn shower, here in Mae-Jo, followed now by a longer shower. Which saves watering the plants & lawn !

Rained hard here in Saraphi about 5:30 for 30 minutes, then drizzle til after 8. Did this last year too..Day after we put up the outdoor Xmas lights...

We have had a long rain most of the morning so far in Doi Saket. I was about half way down painting the house so it looks like I'll have to wait a day or so to finish the painting. :>(

If I'm reading Thaiwx excellent weather website correctly, we've had 3.3mm of rain today so far against a December average of 20mm. so thats a weeks December rain in a day!!

Two years ago it drizzled like this all day on Boxing Day, let's hope its geting that out of the way now!!

Thaiwx website shows the wind coming from the ENE. a little more to the North and we might get a nice cold blast from China!

Raining very hard near the airport right now.

In my 6 years here I can't remember this happening in December before

Not complaining though, it may cool things down a little

Also clean the air

Raining very hard near the airport right now.

In my 6 years here I can't remember this happening in December before

Not complaining though, it may cool things down a little

Also clean the air

... along with wash off all the accumulated dust on everything. Today might be the first day this fall/winter that we don't get over 21c (70f) in temperature. No A/C or fans needed here today.

Awful timing! We have our staff party and sports day today and it is miserable! At least its getting cooler...

I believe this is the rain that bring in the Cold season .

so be expecting cold morning that make your feet shake

Awful timing! We have our staff party and sports day today and it is miserable! At least its getting cooler...

Keep moving to stay warm! It's also bad timing for Hmong villagers as today is New Year's day and lots of celebrations going on up in thar hills.

Shame! It must be freezing up the mountains...

We have a high pressure coming over us to thank for this. I won't have to water everything outside today. 2.5 mm rain here near the airport (so far?)

Looking for a little meteorological education here.

Back in Europe I always used to associate high pressure with fine, dry and settled weather. Sometimes sunny, sometimes cloudy, but predominantly dry. Here in Thailand high pressure seems to bring rain - why the difference?

We have a high pressure coming over us to thank for this. I won't have to water everything outside today. 2.5 mm rain here near the airport (so far?)

Looking for a little meteorological education here.

Back in Europe I always used to associate high pressure with fine, dry and settled weather. Sometimes sunny, sometimes cloudy, but predominantly dry. Here in Thailand high pressure seems to bring rain - why the difference?

Good question. Same for me while living in the states with high pressures generally bringing fair weather. I believe in this case a cold front, when the higher atmospheric pressure with it's cooler air from the north meets our lower pressure warmer air. Fronts are the boundaries between areas of high atmospheric pressure and low atmospheric pressure that typically bring unsettled weather. This front from China has cold air behind it that pushes abruptly underneath the warm air it encounters here. As the warm air is forced upward, water vapor condenses into clouds and rain, which can sometimes be heavy along the front. There are other factors involved also such as the jet stream's position with the moisture it's holding. Hope this helps as I can't always convey to text what I really need to say.

We have a high pressure coming over us to thank for this. I won't have to water everything outside today. 2.5 mm rain here near the airport (so far?)

Looking for a little meteorological education here.

Back in Europe I always used to associate high pressure with fine, dry and settled weather. Sometimes sunny, sometimes cloudy, but predominantly dry. Here in Thailand high pressure seems to bring rain - why the difference?

Good question. Same for me while living in the states with high pressures generally bringing fair weather. I believe in this case a cold front, when the higher atmospheric pressure with it's cooler air from the north meets our lower pressure warmer air. Fronts are the boundaries between areas of high atmospheric pressure and low atmospheric pressure that typically bring unsettled weather. This front from China has cold air behind it that pushes abruptly underneath the warm air it encounters here. As the warm air is forced upward, water vapor condenses into clouds and rain, which can sometimes be heavy along the front. There are other factors involved also such as the jet stream's position with the moisture it's holding. Hope this helps as I can't always convey to text what I really need to say.

Thanks, that makes perfect sense. I guess the reason that it's not immediately apparent is that the Thai Met pressure charts don't show fronts as such.

Good question. Same for me while living in the states with high pressures generally bringing fair weather. I believe in this case a cold front, when the higher atmospheric pressure with it's cooler air from the north meets our lower pressure warmer air. Fronts are the boundaries between areas of high atmospheric pressure and low atmospheric pressure that typically bring unsettled weather. This front from China has cold air behind it that pushes abruptly underneath the warm air it encounters here. As the warm air is forced upward, water vapor condenses into clouds and rain, which can sometimes be heavy along the front. There are other factors involved also such as the jet stream's position with the moisture it's holding. Hope this helps as I can't always convey to text what I really need to say.

ThaiWx explained it well. It is the FRONT that causes the moisture build up and rain, not the actual High pressure pressing agains a Low pressure system.

No rain right now on Saturday afternoon, but it's MUCH cooler than a few days ago, and the sky is a solid grey overcast. Much nicer for sleeping and walking, but a bit chilly riding a motorbike in the evening. I could feel the change coming on Thursday evening when it was un-naturally warm at 10 PM. It gets like that when two fronts collide

Awful timing! We have our staff party and sports day today and it is miserable! At least its getting cooler...

Keep moving to stay warm! It's also bad timing for Hmong villagers as today is New Year's day and lots of celebrations going on up in thar hills.

Okay, I got the date wrong and the Hmong new year is celebrated on 4 January this year. Just got back from a mountain bike ride in the hills near Samoung and I was in solid cloud and mist above 800 meters. Glad I took my Thermax long sleeve shirt as it was chilly coming back down. Looks like it's starting to clear now.

I was given to understand by a local that some (?) years back - possibly 15 or more - it was a fairly common occurrence to have rains at Xmas time.

Cheers.

ThaiWx, who/where do you get that pressure map from, please ?

ThaiWx, who/where do you get that pressure map from, please ?

Hi, I just Googled "Synoptic Charts-Thai Meteorological Department" and got this http://www.tmd.go.th...weather_map.php .

Regards,

ThaiWx

The rain seems to have been wide spread, we got quite a lot in Chiang Rai.

The sky's been completely overcast for the last three days bringing lower daytime temperatures.

I even took a pullover to town yesterday but never needed to wear it.

Welcomed and only fairly unusual in my book. Last year this same weekend was at the relocated Bake n Bit for a multi-birthday celebration and a holiday party when rain began about 8 or 9 pm. Several of us waited for over an hour for it to give way, but it held steady. Finally may of us drove home in our nice clothes, no protection against the rain on our motosais.