I have only been here a few years, but the end of the last rainy season was strange with large amounts of rain in early December ending with a huge downpour on the 15th December.

Since then I believe there has been absolutely no rainfall in the Muang area of Chiang Mai. In previous years I remeber 'Mango Rains' and nights when all those flying ant type insects would swarm as rain was coming. (seen a few of them in the last couple nights)

so, 16 days December, 31 days January, 28 days February and counting March......87 days without rain.

Near a record or not remarkable?

Iain

I predicted earlier that there would be a shortage of water this year,

just based on the levels that the small river at the rear of our house

rose this last rainy season, it did not even come up to the bottom

step of ten down the the river,where in previous years it has always

reached the top step,and once in 25 years overflowed it.

A lot less rain,plus all this building and rise in population in Chiang Mai,

does not bode well,and the dry season has a long way to go yet,so you

may want to have a water tank and pump installed,the odds look like

you could need it.

regards Worgeordie

I wouldn't expect it to rain before songran.

It was 3 years ago I think when I really fell out with songran, it rained every day.

It wasn't very pleasant , at least its ok when the sun shines.

Since I started recording weather statistics at the end of 2009 for my home, I see 2012 having the least rain and this year taking the longest to start (close with 2011). 2010 - 763.5mm, 2011 - 834.4mm, 2012 - 585.7mm, 2013 - 945.4mm, and nothing so far for 2014. Need it really bad though.

Not raining since 15th dec is not a record. I would say its normal. I do remember the first year I had in CM the last rain was in November and it didn't rain again until just before songkran. That was 2000.

There's usually a big brief storm out of nowhere that comes in March, sometimes even bringing hail with it. March is young yet, and so is the dry season. It's no record. Let's see how it plays out. Some of the weather sites have some 10-20% chance of showers listed for the next two weeks, and you can feel the humidity building in the air. Time will tell.

It has been mentioned on the Thai television weather reports, that there will be a shortage of rain this year.

In my experience the time periods between rain in Chiang Mai can be very localised. So it is difficult to average the rain results for the whole region.