Winter starts in Thailand on Thursday
Winter will begin in Thailand on Thursday, October 17. The rainy season has ended, but the umbrella cannot be stowed away yet.
The cooler weather is favorable for domestic tourism, especially in the mountainous areas of the North. This weekend, tourists once again flocked to popular spots such as Doi Inthanon in Chiang Mai and Phu Thap Boek in Phetchabun. Phu Thap Boek National Park expected 10.000 visitors in three vacation days.
Another popular place is Ban Nam Juang in Phitsanulok. Visitors marvel at the blanket of mist that surrounds a mountain, they admire the terraced rice fields and the royal dam project.
The winter season lasts until mid-February. December is the coldest month. In some provinces, including Nakhon Phanom. then the temperature can drop to freezing point.
The lowest temperature ever recorded in Thailand was minus 1,4°C on January 2, 1974 in Muang (Sakon Nakhon), measured at ground level.
Frost is more common in the mountains during this period.
Source: Bangkok Post
Hallo,
Temperatures could drop to freezing in Nakhon Phanom? Then I have missed something in the last ten years….
Regards.
The temperature is never this low. I live near phu tabbroek/tab berk. At the beginning of winter it is 34°. Never lower than 24 at night. It's cooler on top of the mountain, yes, but no one lives there
I have been there several times and the temperatures are around 10 degrees, but in January and February. Don't tell fairy tales, just look at the temperature meter. Put on a winter coat, sweater and fog, which only occurs at lower temperatures. Don't tell me that it won't be below 24 degrees, because it is only different at the weather station in the city of Petchabun, but 60 km away. In the hills of northern Petchabun it can get quite cold, look at the Khao Kho area. and Lom Sak where many people live and is famous for the mist that hangs between the hills in the cold morning and many flowers that only occur in colder areas. The first time I thought it wasn't cold the first time, years ago, I needed a campfire to stay warm, only wearing a T-shirt and, tired of running, I borrowed a thick coat, chattering in the morning in the open air in the fog to admire. Since then I take a jacket and sweater with me in the colder months when I go to the hills in Thailand. As a souvenir I bought a temperature gauge in Khao Kho because of the low temperatures there.
Also camped in Chiang Rai 4 years ago in February: 3 degrees near the ground and needed 6 blankets to avoid getting cold.
In the late 90s, people in Loey province froze to death before Christmas. People deep in the hills, in their houses on stilts with the storm wind blowing on six sides. Houses with only a large room above with walls of bamboo and woven straw. No beds, just a flimsy thing on the floor and insufficient blankets above and below them.
In November in the late 80's during one of my first trips through Thailand I was in such a house on stilts in the Chiang Mai / Mae Hong Son region. The residents had hung a set of blankets in that large space to make a 'room'; they lay close together, under the meager blankets and clothes, and were bursting with cold.
The travel group had winterproof sleeping bags, but we also died of the cold.
I have lived in the outskirts of Nongkhai for 16 years and in December the temperature drops to zero at night, provided the sky is open. That's cold in a house with single-brick walls, single glazing and a roof without insulation. In the evening the electric heater with blower is turned on and you have the thickest blankets on the bed. During the day it can easily be 20+ in the sun, pleasant for me, but the Thais find that cold.
It doesn't get that cold in the city. Concrete absorbs heat during the day and radiates it at night. But light stone construction and completely wooden construction does not have that; in the outlying area the houses are also scattered and then the winter wind also makes it terribly cold when the temperature drops to zero.