Coldest weather in decades hits Thailand


Students at a school in Tambon Terd Thai in Chiang Rai

BANGKOK: -- The temperature in the Thai capital Bangkok fell to its lowest in decades Thursday, during an unusually cold winter that has already claimed 63 lives in northern parts of the country, the government said.

"Bangkok hit its coldest record in 30 years Thursday morning when the temperature fell to 15.6 Celsius," said Songkram Aksorn, Deputy Director General of the Thai Meteorological Department.

This year’s cool season has been the longest for a decade, lasting for almost three months, Songkram said.

Temperatures in north and north-eastern Thailand have dipped to single digits, claiming up to 63 lives in 24 provinces, the Ministryo f Health said Thursday.

Most of the dead were suffering from diseases that were exacerbated by the cold weather, ministry officials said

The youngest victim was one month old and the oldest was 83 years old.

During last year’s cool season there were only 25 weather-related deaths reported, according to Health Ministry data.

The unusually long cool season, blamed on a cold front coming from the north, has also had an impact on Thailand’s rice crop.

"The new rice harvest coming in is not of good quality, because it has flowered too early with this cool season’s unusually low temperatures," said Vichai Sripraset, an honorary president of the Thai Rice Exporters Association.

"When temperatures are low, the fertilization is bad, and then you get a lot of empty rice husks," he explained.

The unusually long cool spell has coincided with three months of almost daily protests in Bangkok.

Leaders of anti-government protests said the low temperatures had not deterred people from joining the demonstrations, some of whom sleep out on the streets.

"It’s been cold but not freezing, and Thai people generally enjoy cool weather the same way Westerners enjoy sunny skies," said Akanat Promphan, spokesman for the anti-government which has been leading protests in the capital since early November.


-- The Nation 2014-01-23

At least we got the political turmoil to keep us warmed up

That's because of Global Warming!

I know I am freezing my ass off.

I haven't been warm in days...

That's because of Global Warming!

Record cold temperatures around the world won't stop the global warming industry with their dire predictions.

Authorities speed up blanket distribution in Nakhon Phanom

BANGKOK, 23 January 2014 (NNT) – Nakhon Phanom authorities are speeding up help for cold snap victims as all 12 districts of the province have already been declared cold disaster zones. The temperature was reportedly as low as 7 degrees Celsius.

Nakhon Phanom Province is experiencing the lowest temperature in 5 years. The mercury measured by the local meteorological office is around 7 degrees Celsius in the morning, forcing the province to declare all of its 12 districts cold-spell disaster zones.

Provincial authorities are now working hard to assist the people as approximately 200,000 residents are in need of winter blankets. People who live in Na Wa District, 100 kilometers away from central Nakhon Phanom, are seen making bonfires at night to keep themselves warm. As of now, around 10,000 winter blankets have been distributed to the residents.

Authorities are also warning residents of possible fire, while calling on all local offices to be well-prepared in case of an emergency.

-- NNT 2014-01-23

i wish this cold season last the same every year...

Tragic that 63 people from the Northern Provences have lost thier lives due to the weather !!! .... Where is the Government, where is the help ???

Blame it on Suthep and his crowd.

Seems as if their combined weigh mass has put Thailand's land mass slightly out of kilter thus Thailand has entered a cold weather stream all due to the protesters weight.

They gone to buy the blankets

It was damn perishing yesterday morning. Had to wear my totos socks to bed.

Enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey in Udon early hours this morning.

Is our Sun falling silent?

"I've been a solar physicist for 30 years, and I've never seen anything quite like this," says Richard Harrison, head of space physics at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-25743806

BBC this week reported an almost total lack of sunspots on the surface of the sun. The last time the sun was so inactive The Thames and the Baltic Sea froze over.

Hell has frozen over.

I guess it depends on where you llive ..... Where off to the Beach ...

That's because of Global Warming!

Record cold temperatures around the world won't stop the global warming industry with their dire predictions.

That is funny, the scientific community is very solidly behind the global climate change, but still your kinds of amateurs think they know better! There is no debate among scientists whether it is happening or not, it is already proven it is happening. That debate among scientists happened already during the 90's.

The only question is how many degrees more warmer. The models have been actually too conservative, the warming is on the upper section of the temperature range. Only in the media the few idiotic (mostly American) denialists are given endlessly time to spill more of their BS, given false impression the climate scientists are somehow still divided about the subject. No, they are not.

Btw, extreme weather patterns are part of the climate change because warming changes the wind patterns, the low and high pressure areas. Scandinavia had very mild, snowless winter until about January 10th, even some flowers started blossoming. Something out of Paris/Zurich latitude level, 20 degrees to the south. Then the temperatures suddenly dropped to -20 to -30 C in few days because the wind patterns turned into more what used to be normal. Northern America had very cold December due to change in the polar vortex but then again summers have been very hot in many places there.

The planet Venus is an extreme example of the greenhouse effect. The wind speeds there are 300-400 km/h. We are going to get more extreme winds because the warming widens the differences in air pressure areas.

That is funny, the scientific community is very solidly behind the global climate change, but still your kinds of amateurs think they know better! There is no debate among scientists whether it is happening or not, it is already proven it is happening. That debate among scientists happened already during the 90's.

The only question is how many degrees more warmer. The models have been actually too conservative, the warming is on the upper section of the temperature range. Only in the media the few idiotic (mostly American) denialists are given endlessly time to spill more of their BS, given false impression the climate scientists are somehow still divided about the subject. No, they are not.

Btw, extreme weather patterns are part of the climate change because warming changes the wind patterns, the low and high pressure areas. Scandinavia had very mild, snowless winter until about January 10th, even some flowers started blossoming. Something out of Paris/Zurich latitude level, 20 degrees to the south. Then the temperatures suddenly dropped to -20 to -30 C in few days because the wind patterns turned into more what used to be normal. Northern America had very cold December due to change in the polar vortex but then again summers have been very hot in many places there.

The planet Venus is an extreme example of the greenhouse effect. The wind speeds there are 300-400 km/h. We are going to get more extreme winds because the warming widens the differences in air pressure areas.

Enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey in Udon early hours this morning.

Thai Met Office reported it as 8.7C. Clang, is there a welder on the premises ?

Tragic that 63 people from the Northern Provences have lost thier lives due to the weather !!! .... Where is the Government, where is the help ???

Official Policy of No Double Standards - we didn't help when there were floods so no help when it's freezing.

I like how the media and people like to side track the real issue by getting into some debate over global warming. While there is not debate concerning the extreme weather and climate changes we are having now along with the massive polluting of our air and water to such a degree that there may not be any clean water to drink or air to breath in the near future. These are facts that need to be looked at and dealt with instead of getting side tracked with global warming debates while the Titanic is heading straight for an iceberg!

The Caretaker government is not allowed by the EC to lent money to buy blankets ...

I was hopeful that the State of Emergency was going to involve people coming round distributing free fan heaters!

That is funny, the scientific community is very solidly behind the global climate change, but still your kinds of amateurs think they know better! There is no debate among scientists whether it is happening or not, it is already proven it is happening. That debate among scientists happened already during the 90's.

The only question is how many degrees more warmer. The models have been actually too conservative, the warming is on the upper section of the temperature range. Only in the media the few idiotic (mostly American) denialists are given endlessly time to spill more of their BS, given false impression the climate scientists are somehow still divided about the subject. No, they are not.

Btw, extreme weather patterns are part of the climate change because warming changes the wind patterns, the low and high pressure areas. Scandinavia had very mild, snowless winter until about January 10th, even some flowers started blossoming. Something out of Paris/Zurich latitude level, 20 degrees to the south. Then the temperatures suddenly dropped to -20 to -30 C in few days because the wind patterns turned into more what used to be normal. Northern America had very cold December due to change in the polar vortex but then again summers have been very hot in many places there.

The planet Venus is an extreme example of the greenhouse effect. The wind speeds there are 300-400 km/h. We are going to get more extreme winds because the warming widens the differences in air pressure areas.

It's not true that there is consensus among scientists. It's yet another lie from the Global Warming industry. And all the predictions they made turned out to be completely wrong. There hasn't been any warming in 16 years. Whilst true that there might be a small warming due to the extra man made CO2, it's not going to have much effect on our climate. Which we can see it hasn't. What does have a huge effect are the number of sunspots. Prepare for a lot colder weather. Soon we will all be wishing that Global Warming was real.

The Scandinavian early winter was mild. But now it is not. Now record cold temperatures are being recorded. Also, the last summer was one of the mildest on record.

And it should be clear to anyone, that people who call others 'denialists' for not believing their theory, do not have an honest agenda.

That's because of Global Warming!

Record cold temperatures around the world won't stop the global warming industry with their dire predictions.

That is funny, the scientific community is very solidly behind the global climate change, but still your kinds of amateurs think they know better! There is no debate among scientists whether it is happening or not, it is already proven it is happening. That debate among scientists happened already during the 90's.

The only question is how many degrees more warmer. The models have been actually too conservative, the warming is on the upper section of the temperature range. Only in the media the few idiotic (mostly American) denialists are given endlessly time to spill more of their BS, given false impression the climate scientists are somehow still divided about the subject. No, they are not.

Btw, extreme weather patterns are part of the climate change because warming changes the wind patterns, the low and high pressure areas. Scandinavia had very mild, snowless winter until about January 10th, even some flowers started blossoming. Something out of Paris/Zurich latitude level, 20 degrees to the south. Then the temperatures suddenly dropped to -20 to -30 C in few days because the wind patterns turned into more what used to be normal. Northern America had very cold December due to change in the polar vortex but then again summers have been very hot in many places there.

The planet Venus is an extreme example of the greenhouse effect. The wind speeds there are 300-400 km/h. We are going to get more extreme winds because the warming widens the differences in air pressure areas.

the scientific community is very solidly behind the global climate change, There is no debate among scientists whether it is happening or not

Oh really:

"Is a Planetary Cooling Spell Straight Ahead? NASA: We May Be On the Verge of a “Mini-Maunder” Event." http://www.globalresearch.ca/nasa-we-may-be-on-the-verge-of-a-mini-maunder-event-is-a-planetary-cooling-spell-straight-ahead/5318725

Global Cooling: Arctic Ice Cap Grows 60 Percent In A Year [NASA PHOTO] http://www.isciencetimes.com/articles/6040/20130911/global-cooling-arctic-ice-cap-60-photo.htm

I like how the media and people like to side track the real issue by getting into some debate over global warming. While there is not debate concerning the extreme weather and climate changes we are having now along with the massive polluting of our air and water to such a degree that there may not be any clean water to drink or air to breath in the near future. These are facts that need to be looked at and dealt with instead of getting side tracked with global warming debates while the Titanic is heading straight for an iceberg!

Exactly, this bothers me as well. How convenient to get everyone worried about something harmless as CO2, so they can continue destroying our environment.

As a side note, the U.S was the first and only country to meet the Kyoto protocol's goals (despite never having signed it). Foreseeing their economic slump could be the reason they wanted the rest of the world to slow down their economic growth.

You just proved my point. Earth is also only 6000 years old, right?

That is funny, the scientific community is very solidly behind the global climate change, but still your kinds of amateurs think they know better! There is no debate among scientists whether it is happening or not, it is already proven it is happening. That debate among scientists happened already during the 90's.

The only question is how many degrees more warmer. The models have been actually too conservative, the warming is on the upper section of the temperature range. Only in the media the few idiotic (mostly American) denialists are given endlessly time to spill more of their BS, given false impression the climate scientists are somehow still divided about the subject. No, they are not.

Btw, extreme weather patterns are part of the climate change because warming changes the wind patterns, the low and high pressure areas. Scandinavia had very mild, snowless winter until about January 10th, even some flowers started blossoming. Something out of Paris/Zurich latitude level, 20 degrees to the south. Then the temperatures suddenly dropped to -20 to -30 C in few days because the wind patterns turned into more what used to be normal. Northern America had very cold December due to change in the polar vortex but then again summers have been very hot in many places there.

The planet Venus is an extreme example of the greenhouse effect. The wind speeds there are 300-400 km/h. We are going to get more extreme winds because the warming widens the differences in air pressure areas.

It's not true that there is consensus among scientists.

Timwin is not a member and has no clues on the scientific community.

One thing is proven and sure. The enormous water reservoirs e.g. in North America for hydro powered dams.....the weight makes the earth change its position. Just a matter of time and Norway has Thailand's weather pattern.