Clean beaches and sun in Phuket

Where is the rain? Where? This is the kind of weather that you expect in high season. The winds have died down this week, small waves now at the beaches, I don't seem to remember any rain. We're into July now. Will it be as rain-free as June? Yeh, we had a few wet days in the middle, a few quick evening downpours, but June is meant to be one of the wetter months in Phuket.

Average Rainfall in Phuket (mm per month):

Jan: 38    Feb: 24
Mar: 55    Apr: 133
May: 324  Jun: 289
Jul: 295   Aug: 272
Sep: 379  Oct: 340
Nov: 181  Dec: 59

I have just been in touch with a guy who has been recording rainfall at his house in Patong since 1998. He sent the data from this year. June had just 50mm of rain in 2009, most of which fell on one day! Also clear that March 2009 (184mm) was quite a bit wetter than normal. Hopefully he'll send 11 years worth of Phuket rainfall data soon.

This morning I headed to Karon Beach, outside the Hilton, at 10am. I had been advised a beach clean up was happenning, and was keen to help. Did not see any beach clean up but the beach looked clean anyway. I drove further along the beach to the Moevenpick hotel. I had been told something would be going on there too. Sure enough some hotel staff were carrying some rubbish off the beach, but were all finished at 10:30am. So I just took a few pictures of local guys doing some fishing.

Drought in Phuket!

The "mostly sunny" weather continues. Today has been sunny and warm, light winds, perfect weather for diving, exploring Phuket, or visiting US Navy ships! My 4 year old son had a school field trip today to see the USS New Orleans, one of 5 navy ships that stopped at Phuket this weekend bringing a boost to tourism for sure.. some kinds of tourism more than others. If you own a bar and did not make a profit this weekend, time to find a new job!

Phuket Gazette : Story about US Seamen in Phuket (yeh, ha ha, we all laughed)



Now, there has been some cloud and light rain in the last 2 days, but I mean, the rain was very light and lasted a few minutes. Mostly very sunny, which is not quite the norm at this time of year. You would expect a bit more rain in Phuket. I was at the Bang Wad reservoir yesterday evening and it is starting to look a bit low. In fact, I discovered today a website that I had not seen before, a Global Drought Monitor which is part of the University College London climate extremes site that also does the excellent Tropical Storm Risk website which I link to on the left side of this blog.

Drought in Phuket? Are you having a laugh? Well, sure we are not in a desert, I can turn on the tap and get water for my shower, BUT I found it very interesting to find from the Global Drought Monitor by zooming in to Thailand on the map.. Phuket is having a "Minor Drought". Sure, we locals could have told you that, but nice to be backed up by climatologists! Zooming in further... looks like my wife's family home (Chumphon, on the east coast) is having a "Severe Drought"! Well, for sure the family says it's hot, not much rain.

Forecast? Well, the one I trust most is Wind Guru. Maybe not perfect on rainfall and temperature, but great for wind and waves.. and at this time of year strong winds means rain and storms... so that means the next week in Phuket looks pretty nice.

OH! There is meant to be a beach clean up on July 2nd (Thursday), all beaches, everyone welcome. I will be at Karon Beach, the clean up starts outside the Hilton 10am. Or at any beach. Look for people with bin bags!

More Sunny Weather in Phuket

Well really, this is getting silly. Where's the low season? This week has been almost all sun, hardly any wind. There was a few minutes of light rain on Tuesday afternoon, a quick 15 minute burst of wind and rain on Wednesday morning - I was at home, and the wind suddenly picked up, all the hills were obscured by clouds scudding in from the west... 20 minutes later it was all sunny again. It's hot too. Temperatures in the mid 30's Celcius.

Although June 21st was the longest day, the sunset time actually gets slightly later, and will be around 6:48pm for the next few weeks. The sun rises a bit later, which I notice, since we tend to wake up around 6am. In the summer, we wake up and it's just about light. In the winter, it's still dark (sunrise in January is as late as 6:46am). These long summer evenings are great. Just that extra half hour of sun means I get home from work with the sun still up, have time to relax outside, kick a ball around with the boy, maybe take a walk at the reservoir or go for a swim at the local pool. I like this time of year!

Yesterday afternoon I took a quick walk on Karon Beach. Not many tourists, red flags flying, waves not too big, but not ideal for swimming for sure. I saw one guy ignore the flags, head into the surf with his mask and fins... there were some lifeguards a bit further down the beach and they shouted at him. "Hey, red flags are not some kind of Chinese-Thai beach decoration". I was expecting to see a lot more garbage on the beach, as the waves and westerly winds always deposits flotsam on our beaches during the summer. There was a bit, but there won't be too much to clean up next week. On July 2nd there's a clean up at all Phuket beaches. Everyone welcome!


The beach looks good, sea looks inviting...


Hey, nice flag! Think I'll go for a paddle.

Long Days in Phuket

Yesterday was the longest day of the year. Yes, they are all 24 hours, but the longest day refers to the day with most sunlight. Yesterday and today too, the official sunrise is 6:10am, sunset is 6:46pm. Total sunlight is officially 12 hours 35 minutes and 23 seconds here in Phuket on the longest day of 2009. There's not a massive change year round. The shortest day is December 21st - we'll get only 11 hours 39 minutes and 37 seconds of sunlight.

More here: Sunrise and Sunset for Phuket

Lots of sunlight year round. Even in this, the fabled "Monsoon" season. Yep, the good weather continues and we made the most of the longest day yesterday. It was hot all weekend. Almost windless on Saturday evening, very warm and humid. Clear skies with bright stars last night.

On Sunday, the longest day, we visited Phuket Aquarium for the nth time. Even after many visits I am not bored, because the kids always love it, always ask questions, always learn something.



From there we at a light lunch at a little roadside restaurant not far from the aquarium, lovely views over Chalong Bay. Along the same road is one of our favourite little restaurants but it closes up for low season.



There was still time for a walk at Bang Wad Reservoir and a swim at a local pool. Ah, these long summer evenings! June is supposed to be, on average, one of the wettest months in Phuket, but this year it's all different. So, either we get a wet July instead, or we have water shortages, or the whole world is just using way too much aircon.

Weather's Lovely - Wish You Were Here

Well, the couple of wet and windy days are forgotten already. We've had great weather in Phuket the last 2 days, sunny and hot, just like it should be in the low season! I mean, come on.. if you have been in Phuket this month, you've had sun, sun, sun, sun, sun, sun, sun, rain, cloud, sun, sun sun. Right? Weather cleared up nicely for some diving over the last couple of days.

This morning I stopped off at Chalong Jetty to say hello to people going out diving and to take a couple of photos. The view below (looking south) has not changed in 10 years except to take the photo I am standing on a modern jetty rather than a rickety wooden one. I have always liked this view. Longtail boats, offshore islands. The island on the horizon (about 20km from Chalong) is Koh Racha Yai, where I must have dived 100 times.



And looking east into the early morning sun... loads of boats. Chalong Bay is a safe anchorage protected from the wind. The bay is full of yachts, speedboats, dive boats, catamarans, fishing boats...



Some weather related Phuket news items...

There will be a beach clean up on July 2nd. If you are in Phuket, join in! This is part of an ongoing effort to clean up the beaches in the summer. The prevailing west winds blow all kinds of flotsam and jetsam onto Phuket's beaches. It can look messy. I plan to be at Karon Beach for the clean up.

More information on Phuket Wan : Beach Cleanup July 2nd

As mentioned last week, the winds in the summer can be strong, can create big waves at the beaches and every year people drown here. See a big wave? Don't swim, please. At least now, finally there seems to be some action. More here:

• Phuket beaches finally get lifeguards

Have a nice weekend!

Blue Skies Red Flags

See, just as I said yesterday, today is much nicer, indeed there has been but a sprinkle of drizzle and the afternoon has been largely sunny. A bit of bad weather in the summer is to be expected, but DON'T PANIC - the bad days normally only last 2 - 3 days maximum. This was really the first big band of SW Monsoon rain that we have had, expect more in the coming months!

Still windy. I would not advise swimming off Karon beach right now. Red flags are flying and I saw more flags being put up this morning. Seas were still rough this morning and we had a dive trip cancelled again today just like yesterday. Looks much better for the next few days, winds have died down... but now we have really started the summer / low season I won't stick my neck out too far and actually predict the weather! If you're coming soon, you are likely to get a mixed bag.

A couple of photos from this morning at Karon Beach, Phuket:

Change in the Weather - Get your Umbrella out!

Wow. A sudden change in the weather here in Phuket. We've not really had any rain for the whole month of June until Sunday night. Saturday was so hot and sunny (see photos posted on June 14th), no sign of any wet weather, then during the evening we got hit by little bands of rain, a few minutes of wind and raindrops bashing on the window, then 20 minutes of calm, then another band. Monday was not too bad, some rain here and there, some wind, a cooler, cloudier day which is sometimes welcome after so much hot weather.

Then came Monday night (last night). Some very heavy rain and strong winds. I checked the wind strength on the internet - there is a live weather station at Nai Yang Beach - when I checked last night, winds were over 20 knots, gusting up to 30 knots, which is "Near Gale Force" on the Beaufort Scale. That did not last long, and it soon died down to a "Strong breeze". Anyway, very windy.

Still windy and wet this morning. We had some diving customers booked, but one trip cancelled which will hopefully run tomorrow instead, forecast looks better on WindGuru. Ha! After all that good weather, all the rain and wind comes in one day! This afternoon is dry, but still cloudy and windy. I did not venture out and take photos, but driving to work this morning at 9am the sky was so dark it was like almost night time! My "best guess" forecast is wind and rain tomorrow (but less than today), then things will all calm down again. The wet 'n' windy spells normally only last 3 days.