Powerful Storm Sends Cars Skidding and Inundates Roads in Bangkok

[paulbj2]

After a prolonged dry spell followed by heavy rain, the roads are like a skating rink anywhere in the world. The combination of rubber dust from tyres and oil drippings from leaky sumps/gearboxes along with dust from brake linings makes a fantastic lubricant that hangs around until the traffic and rain washes it away.

I was driving down the Embankment in London many years back, I stopped at a red light at the bottom of Northumberland Avenue and an articulated petrol tanker slid gracefully into the back of me. It had just started raining after 6 weeks with not a cloud in the sky.

[ratcatcher]

After a prolonged dry spell followed by heavy rain, the roads are like a skating rink anywhere in the world. The combination of rubber dust from tyres and oil drippings from leaky sumps/gearboxes along with dust from brake linings makes a fantastic lubricant that hangs around until the traffic and rain washes it away.

I was driving down the Embankment in London many years back, I stopped at a red light at the bottom of Northumberland Avenue and an articulated petrol tanker slid gracefully into the back of me. It had just started raining after 6 weeks with not a cloud in the sky.

I suppose the truck driver was tankfull you were there to stop him?

[sugarcane24]

"As predicted by two oxes last week and summoned Sunday by a storm of rockets fired over Yasothon city"

Oh dear...

The plural of fox is foxes, but the plural of ox is oxen. One of the many intricacies of the English language.

https://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wc/why-do-we-say-oxen-and-not-oxes/

[oldlakey]

The storm was ' summoned ' by rockets !

Good God don't tell me the junta has decided that even the weather needs AA.

Nothing to do with the 'junta', just Thai tradition. Not really different from the yearly burning of Guy Fawke

where does Joan of Arc fit into all of this anybody

My wife says there is nothing wrong with AA so thats end of chat

[nakhonandy]

Not driving to suit the conditions as usual is the cause.

Does it never rain here?

Actually could do with some rain in Jomtien, keep hearing thunder but zero rainfall.

Been like a desert for months.

[sometimewoodworker]

How about Udon Thani this afternoon

[sanukjim]

The storm was ' summoned ' by rockets !

Good God don't tell me the junta has decided that even the weather needs AA.

Nothing to do with the 'junta', just Thai tradition. Not really different from the yearly burning of Guy Fawkes

Except the participants of the Guy Fawkes burning do it as a bit of a tradition to remember ,unlike Thais that truly believe that oxen,number of pedals on a flower or rockets fired in the air can cause a different in fortunes.So still living in the 17th century.

[namatjira]

when the rain hits Chiangmai....after a prolonged drought , around nimmanheimin road it's like oil starts flowing up from the ground ..... This incredible black smelly sludge comes to the surface and covers the whole road........hope I am not around there when that annual event occurs....going to be one hell of an oil slick this one

[LindsayBKK]

This was the storm that hit at 2AM this morning.

Victory Monument heavy for about approx 10 minutes.

Didn't look threatening on the big map.

[happy chappie]

Have rain then must drive faster and at night must turn off lights on car or get electric from sky kill you.

[Sealbash]

The storm was ' summoned ' by rockets !

Good God don't tell me the junta has decided that even the weather needs AA.

Nothing to do with the 'junta', just Thai tradition. Not really different from the yearly burning of Guy Fawkes

Except the participants of the Guy Fawkes burning do it as a bit of a tradition to remember ,unlike Thais that truly believe that oxen,number of pedals on a flower or rockets fired in the air can cause a different in fortunes.So still living in the 17th century.

When we all know only groundhogs can predict weather

[sandgroper2]

"As predicted by two oxes.."

TIT 21st century..

I have spent many years observing nature, I know when it is going to rain by the way ants build mounds around their tunnels.Are ants smarter than Ox. I dunno. What about some of the people who post on here? Im not abusing anybody, its just a question.

[bazza40]

"As predicted by two oxes.."

TIT 21st century..

Oh give it a rest. In 21st century America ...

Every February 2, thousands gather at Gobbler’s Knob in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, to await the spring forecast from a special groundhog. Known as Punxsutawney Phil, this groundhog will emerge from his simulated tree trunk home and look for his shadow, which will help him make his much-anticipated forecast. According to legend, if Phil sees his shadow the United States is in store for six more weeks of winter weather. But, if Phil doesn’t see his shadow, the country should expect warmer temperatures and the arrival of an early spring.

And when the tsunami hit in 2004, the animals all knew about it and headed for higher ground long before people woke up to the reality.

Before the giant waves slammed into Asian coastlines, animals seemed to know what was about to happen. Dogs refused to leave home, elephants screamed and ran for the high ground, bats fled and flamingos abandoned low-lying areas.

In Australia, bushfires can be predicted by the number of koala bears cadging drinks off firefighters.

[The Deerhunter]

The storm was ' summoned ' by rockets !

Good God don't tell me the junta has decided that even the weather needs AA.

Yes, I was driving up 331 past an Army base just after 3pm today and about 10 rockets were exploding in the sky with white puffs of smoke at several hundred metres presumably from the army base, and this hideous black cloud in the distance towards Cambodia continued to bear down on us and 10 minutes later broke over us. It was what you could genuinely call a weather bomb. It delivered over 3 meters of water into our pond, trashed or uprooted 15 jackfruit trees and flooded the property in places nearly a meter deep. All in an hour. Family have never seen a downpour like that in recent, if not living memory. The wind was biblical, ripping canvas awnings straight off the house. Several of our farm security dogs were coming up to me shaking with fear to hide in the garage, terrified out of their wits. However, we have been very lucky or perhaps rewarded for our deliberate engineering efforts to control and divert storm water on the property over the last 24 months for exactly this event although our plans were not to intended cope with an event quite this extreme. However, cope they did. All the diversion stop banks held and nothing of importance was washed out. All the relief drains acted as planned and despite water being 3 inches up the outside of the North wall of the staff house, almost none got inside. I am seriously proud of what we have achieved in deliberately engineering to control this surface flooding problem that out property is blessed with. The storm was simply epic. I have never seen anything like it in my life. However, a quick hose down of the silt off the concrete paths and a quick squeegee of the unoccupied staff house floor and then inside for a rum and a shower. Chainsaws all around us till dark. A bit of a clean up of damaged trees awaits staff and us over the next couple of days, but by and large we came through it very well. A lot around us would not have been so fortunate.

[The Deerhunter]

does anyone have an email contact for the two buffalos responsible? I would like to thank them. My house has been like a Kiln for the past few weeks. I was thinking of opening a pottery studio. Even the deep interior walls were extremely hot to touch. Welcome relief from a record breaking hot season.

Bucketing down, I was busy running around clearing gutters, drains and downpipes, checking for leaks, scrubbing down the back deck. Most physical thing I have done for weeks.

Buffalos and rockets? Gotta be happy with that. Beats listening to the incessant beat of the 'Climate Change' drum.

Amazing Thailand! Jing Jing!

There was a TVF news post about it 4 or 5 days ago. Traditional ceremony for this time of year. I should add that they looked like Brahman cattle which is possibly not a co-incidence.

[JAG]

After a prolonged dry spell followed by heavy rain, the roads are like a skating rink anywhere in the world. The combination of rubber dust from tyres and oil drippings from leaky sumps/gearboxes along with dust from brake linings makes a fantastic lubricant that hangs around until the traffic and rain washes it away.

I was driving down the Embankment in London many years back, I stopped at a red light at the bottom of Northumberland Avenue and an articulated petrol tanker slid gracefully into the back of me. It had just started raining after 6 weeks with not a cloud in the sky.

Couldn't happen here - you see they don't stop at red lights!

[bannork]

I'm not sure if this link will work being a country bumpkin but if it doesn't go to the website:a global map of wind,weather and ocean conditions and then zoom in on Thailand. It's been posted before but new folks may have missed it

http://earth.nullschool.net/#current/wind/isobaric/500hPa/overlay=total_cloud_water/orthographic=96.26,16.78,1585

[bheard]

Title should read "Crap drivers send cars skidding"

Yup, agreed. Incompetent driving is what sent them skidding.

[tuanku]

As predicted by two oxes last week

They should be running the country.

Sorry, the buffaloes got there first.

[tandor]

As predicted by two oxes last week

They should be running the country.

...oxemorons

[Scouse Twoccer]

Nothing to do with the 'junta', just Thai tradition. Not really different from the yearly burning of Guy Fawkes

Except the participants of the Guy Fawkes burning do it as a bit of a tradition to remember ,unlike Thais that truly believe that oxen,number of pedals on a flower or rockets fired in the air can cause a different in fortunes.So still living in the 17th century.

Yeah, still living in the 17th century...just like the British Guy Fawkes celebrants who also believe that four-leaf clovers, touching wood, hanging horseshoes on the wall, throwing salt over the left shoulder, etc, can cause a change in fortunes. Nearly forgot about those that believe that there's an old man with supernatural powers living among the clouds with his zombie son who can change fortunes. So much more advanced than the Thais, eh?

[FredNL]

More superstition....

and animal cruelty...

This past Thursday in Chanthaburi, locals paraded baskets containing cats which are splashed with water to make them cry, which is believed to encourage the sky to part with its bounty.

[cpofc]

does anyone have an email contact for the two buffalos responsible? I would like to thank them. My house has been like a Kiln for the past few weeks. I was thinking of opening a pottery studio. Even the deep interior walls were extremely hot to touch. Welcome relief from a record breaking hot season.

Bucketing down, I was busy running around clearing gutters, drains and downpipes, checking for leaks, scrubbing down the back deck. Most physical thing I have done for weeks.

Buffalos and rockets? Gotta be happy with that. Beats listening to the incessant beat of the 'Climate Change' drum.

Amazing Thailand! Jing Jing!

".......does anyone have an email contact for the two buffaloes responsible? "

The buffaloes to which you refer are actually (and I stand to be corrected) White Lamphun Cattle and not Asian water buffaloes (Carabao (tagalog).

https://www.google.co.th/search?q=thai+cattle+breeds&rlz=1C1GNAM_enTH684TH684&espv=2&biw=1360&bih=599&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiKxM-9o97MAhUcSY8KHVzMDgoQsAQILw#imgrc=vLZY6wZ3LoXNrM%3A

They are pampered from birth to death.

I imagine a few discreet inquiries in the Chitralada area of Dusit may help with your curiosity.

Next year clean the gutters and downpipes before the rainy season starts.

Salamat Po!

Piece of cake mate! Done the course.

[Bluespunk]

"As predicted by two oxes last week and summoned Sunday by a storm of rockets fired over Yasothon city"

Oh dear...

The plural of fox is foxes, but the plural of ox is oxen. One of the many intricacies of the English language.

https://www.visualthesaurus.com/cm/wc/why-do-we-say-oxen-and-not-oxes/

I wasn't commenting on the grammar.

[Benmart]

The storm was ' summoned ' by rockets !

Good God don't tell me the junta has decided that even the weather needs AA.

Nothing to do with the 'junta', just Thai tradition. Not really different from the yearly burning of Guy Fawkes

I try to stay focused that I am in Thailand the OP was covering a story in Thailand.

[ratcatcher]

does anyone have an email contact for the two buffalos responsible? I would like to thank them. My house has been like a Kiln for the past few weeks. I was thinking of opening a pottery studio. Even the deep interior walls were extremely hot to touch. Welcome relief from a record breaking hot season.

Bucketing down, I was busy running around clearing gutters, drains and downpipes, checking for leaks, scrubbing down the back deck. Most physical thing I have done for weeks.

Buffalos and rockets? Gotta be happy with that. Beats listening to the incessant beat of the 'Climate Change' drum.

Amazing Thailand! Jing Jing!

".......does anyone have an email contact for the two buffaloes responsible? "

The buffaloes to which you refer are actually (and I stand to be corrected) White Lamphun Cattle and not Asian water buffaloes (Carabao (tagalog).

https://www.google.co.th/search?q=thai+cattle+breeds&rlz=1C1GNAM_enTH684TH684&espv=2&biw=1360&bih=599&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiKxM-9o97MAhUcSY8KHVzMDgoQsAQILw#imgrc=vLZY6wZ3LoXNrM%3A

They are pampered from birth to death.

I imagine a few discreet inquiries in the Chitralada area of Dusit may help with your curiosity.

Next year clean the gutters and downpipes before the rainy season starts.

Salamat Po!

Piece of cake mate! Done the course.

nbcdcertran.jpg

Walang anuman.

[Stargeezr]

I am glad to hear that some of Thailand is getting rain as it is so badly needed in all the country.

Seeing the big ponds, reservoirs and lakes all very empty is pretty depressing.

Climate change, with reasons like El Nino, La Nina, Volcanoes , and Earth quakes, of course

these are all man made, don't you know. Even the winds in western Canada called Chinooks, are also man made,

according to one actor. . Give me a break! I even heard a guy named David Suzuki beating the

drums, for how man kind is all to blame for our problems with the weather, and I am getting convinced

that the rest of us humans, do not know that, Mother nature, and the earth itself has cycles that

affect the weather in a lot of ways that us puny humans cannot control.

I hope that Thailand has lots of rain during the rainy months of the year, as it sure impacts the

country if drought conditions continue.

Geezer

[HerbalEd]

"Oxes" is not a word. The so-called author of this piece needs to get a dictionary ... or spellchecker.

[Litlos]

Well done to TMD for correctly predicting the start of the rainy season 3 weeks ago http://www.tmd.go.th/en/seasonal_forecast.php I think the original prediction was before then, but that shows the latest update.

That makes them as accurate as the Barrow Island (Aust) termites who could also predict the rain 3 weeks in advance.

I am just hoping the gutters I installed during the dry season take care of the yard flooding. Really curious, but away at work so will be a couple of weeks before I see the results.

Cheers

[gk10002000]

The Powerful Storm did NOT send cars skidding in Bangkok, unless there were hurricane force winds that I was not aware of. The crazy and bad Thai drivers caused their cars to go skidding by driving too fast for the road conditions