June 7th 2012
It seems to have been raining non-stop for the last 2 days, some of the time the rain has been really heavy with around 100 millimetres of rain falling in just a few hours. Haven't seen this much rain in a long time!
With news over the last 48 hours of floods, fallen trees, billboards crushing houses, broken bridges and yet another pine tree down at Rawai due to coastal erosion, Phuket and Southern Thailand are in a bad way!
Patong's one-way system was forced to become a two-way system to help traffic chaos caused by flooding in front of Patong Hospital and Jung Ceylon. Kathu lost it's power due to a fallen tree pulling down the main power line. In Chalong Home Pro lost it's tent roofing.
And it seems it's not over yet!
Storm warnings run on to June 11th - let's hope something changes!
Andaman Sea Region Thanks to: http://www.rtnmet.org/weather/week.pdf
5-7th June cloudy with 50-70% rain coverage and heavy rainfall in some areas. Visibilty 6-10km SW winds with wind speed of 9-18knots. Wave height 1.5m- 2m (although radio is broadcasting 2m-4m)
8-11th June cloudy with 80% rain coverage and heavy rainfall in some areas. Visibilty 7-10km SW winds with wind speed of 10-19knots. Wave height 2m- 2-5m (Does this mean 2.5m - 5m?)
ภาคใต้ฝั่งทะเลอันดามัน (http://www.rtnmet.org/weather/week.pdf )
วันที่ 5 – 7 มิ.ย.55 มีเมฆมาก กับมีฝนหรือฝนฟ้าคะนองกระจายถึงเกือบทั่ วไป ร้อยละ 50 - 70 ของพื้นที่
และมีฝนตกหนักบางแห่ง ทัศนวิสัย 6 – 10 กม.(3.5 - 5.5 ไมล์) ลมตะวันตกเฉียงใต้ ความเร็ว 9 – 18 นอต
ทะเลมีคลื่นเล็กน้อยถึงปานกลาง ความสูงของคลื่น 5 – 7 ฟุต (1.5 – 2.0 เมตร)
วันที่ 8 – 11 มิ.ย.55 มีเมฆมาก กับมีฝนหรือฝนฟ้าคะนองเกือบทั่ วไป ร้อยละ 80 ของพื้นที่ และมีฝนตก
หนักบางแห่ง ทัศนวิสัย 7 – 10 กม.(4.0 - 5.5 ไมล์) ลมตะวันตกเฉียงใต้ ความเร็ว 10 – 19 นอต ทะเลมีคลื่นปานกลาง ความสูงของคลื่น 6 – 8 ฟุต (2.0 – 2.5 เมตร)
With all this crazy weather going on we seem to be getting a fair share of crazy tourists here in Phuket too. Despite the fact that red flags are in place to warn people not to swim and that seas look pretty threatening to most people, there still remains a few people who want to try their luck. Lifeguards along Phuket's major beaches are having to risks there lives every day to drag people out of the sea to safety, people that ignore the warnings. The lifeguards often have a hard time to prevent people going into the sea and it's often these obstinate 'good swimmers' that end up as statistics in the local newspaper. So I ask you would you go into the sea having looked at the photo below?
(Photo thanks to Phuket News where you can read the full story.)
