The day before yesterday, the first heat record in Thailand was broken, with 42,7 °C in Kanchanaburi, it was already a degree warmer than the hottest day in 2012.
The picture on the right is from a Thai news channel Channel 3 from yesterday morning. On this you can see that it is currently very hot in Thailand. Heat records are expected to be broken again in the coming weeks.
The hottest was Wednesday in Kanchanaburi (Central Thailand) with 42,7 °C. In the North, Tak was the hottest place with 42.3 °C. In Bangkok, it was 37,5 °C, although the wind chill in Bangkok can be up to 10 degrees higher.
Heat records in the past
Now it is always hot in these months, but how warm was it in previous years? In 2012, the highest temperatures were recorded in Lampang, Phrae and Tak; it became 41,7 °C here. The highest temperature in Bangkok was 40,0 °C.
In 2011 Buriram was the hottest with 40,7 °C, followed by Tak with 40,4 °C and Lopburi with 39.2 °C. The highest temperature recorded in Bangkok was 38.5 °C.
In 2010, Mae Hong Son had a heat record of 43,4 °C, closely followed by Kanchanaburi with 43 °C and Buriram: 41.1 °C. In Bangkok it did not get hotter than 39.7 °C.
Highest recorded temperature in Thailand: 44.05 °C.
For the real record we have to go back even further. The hottest day on record in Thailand was April 27, 1960; then it became a whopping 44.05 °C in Uttaradit.
It is still early April and the real heat is yet to come. According to the Thai Meteorological Department, we can get wet and the temperature can rise to 43 ° C or higher in the coming weeks.
Source: www.richardbarrow.com/2013/04/record-breaking-temperatures-in-thailand/
Better than in the still cold NL – now at 09.15 I read near Doi Satep, in the hills north of Chiang Mai, already 27 degrees lower than the thermometer hanging in the shade. Delicious, actually I don't want to go back!
I also went outside to have a look. On the balcony (north side, always shaded) it is now -5 April 09:35 am - 29 degrees. Yesterday afternoon it rose to 39 degrees. It can only be endured with fans at full strength. You are blown away, but otherwise you are melting away.
At such a moment I have great respect for the Thai people who just keep working. I couldn't.
Agree Jacques.
Those who work inside are happy, but outside it must be a horror for all those others.
They are soon forgotten.
Wouldn't be for me either and they deserve all the respect for their work in these circumstances.
Not only Thai people have to work in extreme heat, if we are doing a dredging job somewhere in the world, we work 12 hours if you have a day shift.
Nowadays you are no longer allowed to work in shorts and bare-chested for safety reasons, so you work in that heat with overalls, life jacket, helmet, and heavy boots with steel toe caps, which you can really only wear with goat wool socks otherwise your feet will break .
Often work together with locals, who generally take it even worse than we do.
Working in such temperatures will be a horror for everyone.
They're straightening out some buildings around here.
It's a fairly large project.
Locals, but I suspect also from the surrounding countries.
Their body is completely shielded from the sun, including the head, only the eyes are free.
Helmets are occasionally seen and most without shoes on the scaffolding
There is not a single farang in between, so I can't ask if it can handle it better.
I don't think that we Dutch "farang" can handle it better, but the Thais have adopted a different work pace over the years.
I have never experienced that the work pace was determined by the weather conditions, Jan Kaas just goes for it 100%.
If you can't come along, you're out in the dredging business.
Didn't I mention the engine room staff, can sometimes be up to 80 degrees down there, if there is tinkering, gloves on, otherwise you will burn yourself on the tools.
I can't read it outside because there isn't one (I'll have to buy one for outside) but on the electronic inside it is now 34 degrees with fan on full blast. Outside probably a bit more and not a breath of wind unlike yesterday.
I already have the effects of the heat. On Monday I went to a collection campaign for the Red Cross and then to Asiatique. I got into the refrigerators of taxis and there were 4 of us missing, so I had to sit at the front every time. The air conditioning was always on full blast and in my face. It was not possible to remove the slots because they were blocked or simply not present. Dropping off was not an option for the taxi driver. Result – on Tiffy since yesterday, because I was saddled with a bad cold and accompanying headache and runny nose.
That is always so annoying from Thai taxis, vans, etc. It always seems as if you are walking into a freezer. I always bring an extra scarf and a long-sleeved shirt especially for transport.
Moderator: Your comment is off topic.
I detest a fan. My experience is that in sunny weather it is better to sit outside in the sun and in the wind than inside where there is no sun and in the draught. On the beach you can have a bit (too) much of a good thing, but then you dive into the sea water. If that close to the coast is warmer than pleasant at this time of year (April), swim a little way into the sea, away from the shallow water, is my advice. The idea that bathing water should be fresh - fresh in the sense of cold - is a wrong idea brought from the cold regions. You will recover from (too) cold water, from a Thai sea bath that you take in April, that will refresh you.
The vendors on the beach are having a hard time and act according to a different recipe: they cover themselves as much as possible, the women usually wear a hat. It doesn't seem to work very well, but I don't know what advice I should give them. They have to go through the loose sand where most of the tourists are. They can hardly swim behind them.
Sometimes I see people who have more choice act really maladjusted. Walking along the beach in black from crown to sole of foot smells bad, because in one hand a cigarette, in the other a bottle of beer. One hand and the other of such a dark figure goes in turn towards the hood.
At least (or almost?) just as bizarre is spending a week exploring all over Bangkok in April.
In short: if you have the opportunity to adapt, do so and feel privileged; the weather conditions do not adapt to you.
lije,
I can understand that you detest a fan and prefer to sit outside in the wind, which I do, although I do not despise a fan but find it a pleasant invention.
With your advice, that it is better to sit in the sun instead of indoors where there is no sun, I still ask myself questions ... although I do see it regularly and especially the consequences
You could give the same advice against getting wet - Stand in the rain instead of under a roof.
I agree with you that weather conditions do not adapt to you.
It is possible to deal with the weather conditions in the right way or to protect yourself against them in the right way.
Dear Ronnie,
Thank you for your kind and intelligent comments. A house protects against, among other things, rain and wind, of which you sometimes have too much outside, but you can also get too much of sunshine without a roof over your head, especially in - as I mentioned - quite a few wind. However, there is something you can do about this, such as applying sunscreen, sitting in the shade and swimming with a hoodie on. If you are going to ride a scooter, do not do so with bare legs in the sun and wind, but wear long pants. There are more measures that are not difficult to think of and take, but are effective. Moreover, with some care you can build up resistance to direct sunlight. You can view this building up as a training: the more you learn to deal with sun and heat, the healthier you become.
But what should I do if I have a draft in my house and it is very hot? Well, I won't get sunburn. But it does make me sick (cold and worse). From doors or windows that open against each other and from… fans. So I'm not a fan of those things. On the other hand, I like sunbathing and swimming in the sea - even and especially when it is very hot - very well. After some training in this, or call it a habituation, I am tired at the end of the afternoon, but healthy tired. That is a tiredness that makes you sleep well and that is simply not there the next morning. Staying indoors makes me sickly tired. I am not a homebody here in Thailand. People who are (already were in the Netherlands) have problems with the sun and the heat. They are adapted to perhaps all weather conditions except the best weather there is (and that Thailand has to offer in April).
And then this: I spoke of the fact that you can sit in the shade with your body. It is best to do this with your legs in the sun (you have to move your position quite often, the earth keeps spinning). I like it especially when I have suffered a jet lag again.
If you want to appear intelligent, it's jet lag, not jet lag.
You don't get a cold (or worse) from being cold or being in a draught, but only get a "cold on your muscles" from; Look it up.
I don't like it that people are so cynical at each other on the blog, more and more.
It is exchange information or not??
Feed for the moderator: who's getting out now? Or is there cynical? Furthermore: if you don't have anything 'under the members' you don't get from draft what I get from it. Then: apparently jet lag has not yet been dutchified into jet lag. If only I had a spell check (or how you spell that word), but thanks for the correction.