Thailand's North and Northeast coping with drastic drop in temperatures

[webfact]

Thailand's North and Northeast coping with drastic drop in temperatures

THAILAND, 10 December 2015 (NNT) - Areas in Thailand’s northern and northeastern regions are experiencing a drastic drop in temperatures.

Chiang Mai’s meteorological office forecasted that the province’s temperature will remain between 17 and 19 degrees Celsius, while temperatures at various hilltops were reported between 4 and 10 degrees. The temperature at Doi Inthanon recently dropped to as low as 3.8 degrees Celsius.

Students in Powittaya School in Chiang Rai’s Wiang Kaen District participated in outdoor recreational activities during recess to increase body heat after the temperature in the area dropped to between 15 and 19 degrees Celsius. The province’s disaster prevention and mitigation department reported that over 200,000 residents are being affected by the cold front, and the office is in the process of distributing winter clothes.

In Khon Kaen Province, temperatures have dropped to 18 degrees Celsius, causing residents, particularly children and the elderly, to suffer from respiratory diseases such as the flu and pneumonia. Hospitals in the central district have reported an average of 100 patients with these diseases, and the number is expected to rise should temperatures continue to fall.

Meanwhile, Nakhon Phanom’s provincial administration is in the process of distributing winter clothes to residents in Muang, That Phanom, Tha Uthen and Ban Phaeng districts, after temperatures have dropped to between 17 and 18 degrees Celsius.

In Uthai Thani Province, residents in the sub-district of Kaen Makrut in Ban Rai District and Thong Lang in Huai Khot District are experiencing a shortage of winter clothing and have had to build bonfires in the morning and evening.


-- NNT 2015-12-10

[tonray]

Wow....18 degrees ! Chip the ice off the old truck in the morning......I swear people have no concept of what cold really is !

[jaltsc]

"Areas in Thailand’s northern and northeastern regions are experiencing a drastic drop in temperatures."

It's not like this hasn't happened before. Every year it's the same thing and nothing changes. The mindset, as with many other issues, seems to be, "We will worry about the cold when it gets here", with no planning or preparation. As for the people living in some of these areas being too poor to afford warm clothing and blankets, it appears that everyone who receives donations appears to have cell phones, and not the basic models, but the fully loaded ones.

Also, smoking indoors by adults doesn't do much to prevent some of the respiratory diseases which affect the children. Perhaps the inhalation of second hand smoke makes them more susceptible.

It's a matter of lack of education and prioritizing resources by both the government and community.

[RickBradford]

I was in Khao Kho (Phetchabun) last weekend, about 1,000 metres above sea level, and I reckon it got down to about 15C overnight.

I slept outside in a tent and was warm as toast, while the Thais were all wandering around in clothes straight out of Scott of the Antarctic.

They were almost (but not quite) too cold to sell me the strawberries, blueberries, mulberries, Cape gooseberries, baby carrots and other sub-tropical delights they grow up there.

[lee b]

Wonderful temperature in the evenings in Chiang Mai. Wish it was like this all the time !!!!!

[noosard]

Yeah it has cooled down

Don't have the aircon on just a fan

[flossiebear]

My first year in Chiang rai was the same. I ended up hospitalised with pneomonia. Needed heater in our home before Drs allowed me home. Everywhere was sold out. The issue is the lack of heating when indoors. I really did not enjoy the cold weather in the north. Interestingly all the other expats told me it had never been that cold before, but it's seems it is a regular occurrence, and in hindsight wish I would have been better prepared. In the uk no way will people work in offices below 17c without heat.

[prakhonchai nick]

Why do people in the North expect winter clothes to be distributed by the central and local governments every year? What happened to the clothes/blankets etc they received last year, and the year before that and............................/???

They know every year it will be cold. So why can't they obtain their own warm clothing and blankets. I bet it would come out every year if they bought it themselves.

Aah, but I forgot. Buying warm clothes and blankets would require them to stop the lao kao, reduce their gambling, and stop feeding their beloved monks. Can't have any of that can we?

[max72]

My first year in Chiang rai was the same. I ended up hospitalised with pneomonia. Needed heater in our home before Drs allowed me home. Everywhere was sold out. The issue is the lack of heating when indoors. I really did not enjoy the cold weather in the north. Interestingly all the other expats told me it had never been that cold before, but it's seems it is a regular occurrence, and in hindsight wish I would have been better prepared. In the uk no way will people work in offices below 17c without heat.

In late December 1999 the temperature in Chiang Rai agromet. station dropped to +1.5C ,just a notch above freezing. That was really cold. Bangkok dropped to 13C.

January 1955 and January 1974 were the two other historical cold waves in Thailand with below freezing recorded at low elevations at Loei and Sakhon Nakhon

[thaiduncankk]

My first year in Chiang rai was the same. I ended up hospitalised with pneomonia. Needed heater in our home before Drs allowed me home. Everywhere was sold out. The issue is the lack of heating when indoors. I really did not enjoy the cold weather in the north. Interestingly all the other expats told me it had never been that cold before, but it's seems it is a regular occurrence, and in hindsight wish I would have been better prepared. In the uk no way will people work in offices below 17c without heat.

I have just come out of hospital in the North East, after 2 nights.

It is not the temperature, but the sudden drop.

If it were to gradually drop, I don't think it would affect so many people.

I have not been back to the UK for over 10 years, so it makes it difficult for me to tolerate the cold over here at this time of year.

[chiang mai]

Wow....18 degrees ! Chip the ice off the old truck in the morning......I swear people have no concept of what cold really is !

Cold is relative to what you are used to, the people in the North don't need to know what real cold is, the levels they experience in Thailand during this period are more than enough to kill them - and many will die again this year, mostly very young, old and/or old and sick and those who drink alcohol to stay warm.

[slipperylobster]

Wow....18 degrees ! Chip the ice off the old truck in the morning......I swear people have no concept of what cold really is !

It really is perspective..I think. I remember this particular winter, back home.

[BuaBS]

Well in the valleys up north , the temp didn't go below 20 C. From 11 o'clock it's back over 30 C. In the mountains it is always cooler. So far it's not really Thai "winter " yet. Last year's winter was too hot and too short too.

[Colabamumbai]

Being from Canada originally, Thais say to me "How can you be cold."

It is the drop from daytime 90's to nighttime 65 degrees.

Some winters here in Isaan I have had to get up in the night and put clothes on and go back to bed.

[chiang mai]

Well in the valleys up north , the temp didn't go below 20 C. From 11 o'clock it's back over 30 C. In the mountains it is always cooler. So far it's not really Thai "winter " yet. Last year's winter was too hot and too short too.

I'm in Mae Rim, 22 kms North of CM and at 5 am this morning it was 16 degrees in my garden - we haven't seen over 26 degrees here all day, except in direct sunlight of course. Given that we are at the base of the mountains it's easy to believe that higher up is significantly colder at night.

[Whyamiandwhatamidoinghere]

I love sweater weather...

[Thian]

2-3 years ago it was also 12-15 degree's in BKK at night. Why didn't we get warm clothes as well?

Can't believe those people don't have any warm clothes at all, and it seems they never learn to keep them for next year.

[chiang mai]

2-3 years ago it was also 12-15 degree's in BKK at night. Why didn't we get warm clothes as well?

Can't believe those people don't have any warm clothes at all, and it seems they never learn to keep them for next year.

15.6 actually, for one night!

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Coldest-weather-in-decades-hits-Thailand-30224972.html

But your own thermal undies.

[tubber]

Wow....18 degrees ! Chip the ice off the old truck in the morning......I swear people have no concept of what cold really is !

It really is perspective..I think. I remember this particular winter, back home.

Yes it really is perspective. If you were in your mid-sixties, having worked 40 years in the rice fields with 0% body fat, sleeping outside with nothing but a thin blanket and used with the temperatures being in the 30's (Celsius). Then no doubt the sudden shock would kill you. Which it does to many of the locals.

No doubt in that particular winter you were in your centrally-heated, fully insulated house. If you stepped outside you were dressed like an Eskimo (who was probably in a T-shirt thinking you looked like an idiot). Use a bit of common-sense <deleted> before posting stuff like that. If the temperatures in Europe get over 30C people are falling over all over the place.

[SilverBeast]

Just show them this and watch the reactions, lol.

[Shiver]

Why do people in the North expect winter clothes to be distributed by the central and local governments every year? What happened to the clothes/blankets etc they received last year, and the year before that and............................/???

They know every year it will be cold. So why can't they obtain their own warm clothing and blankets. I bet it would come out every year if they bought it themselves.

Aah, but I forgot. Buying warm clothes and blankets would require them to stop the lao kao, reduce their gambling, and stop feeding their beloved monks. Can't have any of that can we?

This question has been asked a few times over the years, and one of the answers if I recall correctly was that when harvesting rice they use them for sun drying the rice (then presumably become rags?). I don't know if that is true or not.

Cold season is my favourite time of year here. If you're a little cold you can add extra layers. In the hot season you can't do much without electricity for fan/aircon, and that drops out sometimes. The shocker is when you are on a motorcycle in the city and travel outside the city, and you hit that sudden wall of cold that can be 5C or greater below what you experienced just seconds before.

Am thinking of going to Loei soon with GF and another couple for a few nights. I said to her that it can get pretty cold there, and you know what that means. She said no, what? I said you'll have to hug me a lot to keep yourself warm. She burst into fits of laughter and said "Always!". Just one more reason I like the cold season.

[tuanku]

Why do people in the North expect winter clothes to be distributed by the central and local governments every year? What happened to the clothes/blankets etc they received last year, and the year before that and............................/???

They know every year it will be cold. So why can't they obtain their own warm clothing and blankets. I bet it would come out every year if they bought it themselves.

Aah, but I forgot. Buying warm clothes and blankets would require them to stop the lao kao, reduce their gambling, and stop feeding their beloved monks. Can't have any of that can we?

So you are suggesting ALL people N of where? Nakhon Sawan? are alcoholics and gambling addicts, (not to mention "monk feeders") to an extent that they cannot remember where they put last years warm clothes, (or maybe they sold them in the hot season to feed their addictions)? So they sit shivering and waiting to be issued with warm clothing by the Government? What a sad and warped image you have of the country you have presumably chosen to call home and its people. maybe its the circles you move in-like attracts like and all that.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you, Old Nick..............sounds like you need to cheer up a bit - wouldn't want to be you!

[tuanku]

Thais have no concept of anything except the brainwashing they get from the day they are born & They don't even get that

Classic.............and such a good fit with the user name!

[Doc46]

Unbelievable that the people Want/Get new winter clothing/blankets every winter,what happen to the ones they got last year & the year before & the year before that? Sold them for money or swopped them for grog or drugs?

[White Christmas13]

Well I am lost for words I thought they call it global warming

[Foexie]

Wow....18 degrees ! Chip the ice off the old truck in the morning......I swear people have no concept of what cold really is !

They have a very good concept of what is cold for them. If you are used to have 30 degrees or more the biggest part of the year you can be sure 18 degrees is very cold.

In 2010 i was in area Udon Thani and drove outside at night. And also for me the 15 degrees at night felt damn cold if in the day it was 30-35 degrees. Normaly i have no problems with the cold in my country.

Some years ago we had a German comming to work in our factory. He just moved 6 months before to Thailand and he needed a jacket overhere where it was already 20-22 degrees outside.

But if my friends or gf tells me they have cold in Thailand i Always joke them that it is Thai cold.

[slipperylobster]

Wow....18 degrees ! Chip the ice off the old truck in the morning......I swear people have no concept of what cold really is !

It really is perspective..I think. I remember this particular winter, back home.

Yes it really is perspective. If you were in your mid-sixties, having worked 40 years in the rice fields with 0% body fat, sleeping outside with nothing but a thin blanket and used with the temperatures being in the 30's (Celsius). Then no doubt the sudden shock would kill you. Which it does to many of the locals.

No doubt in that particular winter you were in your centrally-heated, fully insulated house. If you stepped outside you were dressed like an Eskimo (who was probably in a T-shirt thinking you looked like an idiot). Use a bit of common-sense <deleted> before posting stuff like that. If the temperatures in Europe get over 30C people are falling over all over the place.

bad day, huh? don't quite understand your last line....common sense? I think you are taking that a bit far. The photo you don't like (for whatever reason) was for fun....not to draw nasty attacks...thanks.

[h90]

Wow....18 degrees ! Chip the ice off the old truck in the morning......I swear people have no concept of what cold really is !

18 degree.....my 70 year old mother would consider to turn off the aircon and for one day don't complain about the heat.

[lostinisaan]

My first year in Chiang rai was the same. I ended up hospitalised with pneomonia. Needed heater in our home before Drs allowed me home. Everywhere was sold out. The issue is the lack of heating when indoors. I really did not enjoy the cold weather in the north. Interestingly all the other expats told me it had never been that cold before, but it's seems it is a regular occurrence, and in hindsight wish I would have been better prepared. In the uk no way will people work in offices below 17c without heat.

In late December 1999 the temperature in Chiang Rai agromet. station dropped to +1.5C ,just a notch above freezing. That was really cold. Bangkok dropped to 13C.

January 1955 and January 1974 were the two other historical cold waves in Thailand with below freezing recorded at low elevations at Loei and Sakhon Nakhon

How old were you in 1955?

[Mosha]

Why do people in the North expect winter clothes to be distributed by the central and local governments every year? What happened to the clothes/blankets etc they received last year, and the year before that and............................/???

They know every year it will be cold. So why can't they obtain their own warm clothing and blankets. I bet it would come out every year if they bought it themselves.

Aah, but I forgot. Buying warm clothes and blankets would require them to stop the lao kao, reduce their gambling, and stop feeding their beloved monks. Can't have any of that can we?

Every year its a broken record. &lt;deleted&gt; happened to previous years handouts?