Record drought and heat in Central Thailand

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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[Some of the more tedious details have been Spoilered for a TL;DR effect.]

Many months ago the Thai government asked farmers to grow but a single crop in the 2015 season — normally many farmers pump water out of government canals to get a 2nd or even 3rd rice crop. And indeed 2015 was a drought year. Mid-April is the traditional beginning of the (2016) rainy season here but until today — Nothing! Today, it got cool, very windy, and we heard some thunder — but got barely a few drops of rain. (Some nearby districts were more fortunate.)

A friend who raises pigs complains that just watering the pigs is now an expensive and time-consuming operation. Our last drinking-water delivery showed the drought in its own way… When I moved to my present location several years ago, our washing water was pumped [SPOILER]from a waterhole and passed through a crude filter. For drinking, we used rainwater gathered from our roof into 1000-liter jugs. (We kept store-bought drinking water for squeamish guests.) None of the villages in our area had running water.

Now all the villages have local running water (though often shut down for one reason or another, or trickling only slowly and at odd hours). To avoid the logistics of roof-water storage (e.g., need to get rid of roof-perching, roof-shitting doves), we buy drinking water for about 3 cents per liter. This is well-water filtered and bottled locally with, allegedly, inspection by the Thai government.

We buy the drinking water 60 liters at a time (so vendor won’t get tired of turning in to our driveway), but she had only 28 liters to give us — two 10-liter bottles and a 3rd broken bottle for which there was no charge. Her customers are on consignment as other bulk drinking water vendors in the area have shut down. (The 7-Eleven is still well stocked with brand-name drinking water.)[/SPOILER]

Anyway, I’ve no idea if this is a “record” drought — but it’s got to be at least close. Temperatures, OTOH, seem to be breaking some specific records.

The sequel is based solely on 45 years of recordings from weather-station 48400. I’ve scanned the maximum-temperature column, looking for 40° (104° Fahrenheit) or more. [SPOILER]One sees occasional 42°+ (107.6°+ Fahrenheit) days as well. Google “highest temperature ever recorded in Thailand” and find 44.5 °C (112.1 °F) Uttaradit 27 April 1960
Weather station 48400 is about 200 miles south of Uttaradit but is closer to me.

The hottest month among the 500+ months online (the record I found does NOT extend back to 1960.) was April 1992 with 20 days of 40°+ heat (including four days of 42°+ — the other ten days of that April included one 38.4° and 9 days in the range 39.0°-39.9°. (March 1992 BTW had no 40°+ days, but every day was 36°+.)

This past March we had eleven consecutive days of 40°+ heat. Unusual indeed — March is usually cooler than April — and obliterating the record nine 40°+ days-in-a-row set on April 1985.[/SPOILER]
Today, the expected thunderstorm finally arrived. Our house was cool (if rain-free :mad: ) and it appears that station 48400’s high was well below 40°. This ends a rather unusual streak.

From April 3 to April 29 there were 27 consecutive days of 40°+ heat. This obliterates the previous record of eleven such consecutive days set just last month.

From April 9 to April 29 there were 21 consecutive days of 42°+ heat. This obliterates the previous record of two such consecutive days set in 1985 and tied twice in 1992. The 22 days of 42°+ heat also bests the record of most 42°+ days in a single month, previously four days, set April 1992.

During this month there have been ten 43°+ days. I see no other 43°+ in the 45 years of on-line records of weather station "484000 (VTPN)." 43.4° is 110° Fahrenheit. ***Remember that this unrelenting high heat began nine weeks ago.

During this hot spell at least three nearby countries have reported the highest temperature they’ve ever recorded. Thailand failed to defeat the single-day records set during the late 1950’s. Still I don’t think “Record drought and heat in Central Thailand” is an exaggeration.

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So, I had the chance to experience two record heat waves in one year. But I left Thailand in mid-March, when it seemed perfectly normal. But last summer I was in Tbilisi, Georgia on a couple of days that were said to be the hottest on record, in fact quite a lot of things shut down because of the high temperatures. But it wasn’t as hot as a typical summer day here at home in south Texas, so it didn’t bother me a bit.

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Central Panama has just gone through its driest three-year span in record. In Panama City, we’ve had essentially no rain since January. Limits have been set on the draft of ships using the Panama Canal. A lot of this is due to the strong El Nino this year, which causes drought in Panama.

It’s been unusually hot the past few weeks, even for April, the hottest month. Fortunately the weather just broke a few days ago with heavy rains to signal the start of the rainy season more or less on time. Hopefully we’ll get enough to make up the deficit.

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An area between Houston and Beaumont, Texs, had two different days a month apart (in March and April) in which many places got more than 20 centimeters of rain in one day, and some 50 centimeters, causing significant flooding and closures of major highways.

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Adding insult to injury, my car’s A/C choose last week to conk out…
I also suspect the extreme heat and/or the ground shrinking from lack of water to be responsible for my balcony floor cracking open, it literally unzipped from the door to the handrail one morning, I could hear the tiles cracking and snapping sending shards flying.

Yeah, kind of hot.

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So, the cool storm on 30 April led to a day’s high of just 91° Fahrenheit — almost wintry! Brrr. May 1 warmed up to 38.3° (101° F) — one of the coolest days in the past ten weeks. But then the heat returned. Every day since has been 40°+ and the 7-day forecast is for continued 41°+ temperatures.

May 7, at 43.7°, was the hottest day ever recorded by weather station 48400, beating the previous record of 43.5° which was set … May 6, the day before. (There have been twelve 43°+ days this year, compared with Zero during the previous six decades or more.)

Still no rain. Normally the downpours of the monsoon start in mid-April, but our village has had only a very few drops of rain for many months. My wife’s lovely garden and orchard are under a triage regime.

Drought and heat led to a forest fire at the famous Doi Suthep (mountain) adjacent to Chiang Mai. The fire is plainly visible from the city, where my daughter goes to university and is now taking final exams. It will be a hot and smoky finals week for her.