November in Phuket - High Season is Here!

There's no exact date for the switch between low and high season in Phuket. And please do take note - just as you can get some really nice weather in low season, you can also get wet days in high season. This is the tropics and things only stay green by getting wet now and then :) Normally sometime in mid October, the west or southwest winds / monsoon stops blowing and there are a couple of unsettled weeks with quite a bit of rain and not much wind. Heat + no wind + water vapour = thunderstorms.

October this year was fairly typical - see the last update on the weather blog. Some sun, some grey days, some thundery showers, around 500mm of rainfall during the month, but still nice days too. The last update was October 23rd ... about 2 weeks ago.

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Looking back at Tweets and photos posted on Instagram and Twitter, we can look back at the last 2 weeks...

October 24th "Certainly high season weather today"

Below - timelapse video 24th October from the webcam at Patong Beach :



October 25th "Clear skies over my house this morning and a definite coolness to the air after rain and thunder in the night"

The cool mornings with clear skies are typical in the early high season (November - January) - and make the most of the mornings, because if rain comes, then it normally comes during the heat of the day.

Friday 25th in the night ... many thanks to a blog reader for bringing me a bottle of Killepitsch, a herbal German liqor. Some friends and I enjoyed that in the evening :)



Saturday 26th started rainy ... but got better. Here's the sunset ...



Rain in the night of the 26th, so that should mean clear skies in the morning of the 27th ... Reality : more rain and dark skies to the east when I set off for work. And then on the 28th my Tweet was "Wet morning in #Phuket ... Rain all the way as I drove from town to Karon beach via Patong beach."... Low season always has a last twist! On the 24th looked like that was it, but then, some rain again!

Below - view from my lunch table on the 28th :



High season? Really? Don't worry, I tell people, this is normal. End of October, weather can change 5 times a day.

29th October (morning) "I can see some blue sky this morning, though a light rain is falling and half the sky is grey."

29th October (afternoon) "Hot sunny afternoon .. Looks like the wet weather has gone. Blue skies and fluffy clouds."

And in the late afternoon I was at Chalong Bay for a little season-launch party on a dive boat ... lovely sunny evening as I walked down the jetty.



So, is high season really here now? Yes, I think so.

30th October "Sunny morning in Phuket, blue skies, fresh air, going to be a hot one!"

31st October "Early morning #Phuket weather report - it's absolutely bloody lovely. Perfect weather." (did rain a little in the afternoon though)

Halloween ... an odd American invention. Kids dressed up a bit in the evening and went to a friend's house for a little trick or treating ...



November! Well, this is "officially" high season, though some travel agents say it starts on the 15th. November is on average much drier and sunnier than October. And on average it keeps getting drier through December, January and February which are the 3 driest months, then it gets hotter through March and April and into May before finally the weather changes, the west winds blow and we are in "low season" again.

1st November "Phuket weather report this morning ... blue skies. Another perfect morning :)"



(above) View of Le Meridien Resort, between Patong and Karon, morning of November 1st.

2nd November .. early morning, as our kids had school athletic practice at the Surakul stadium starting at 7am (before things get too hot). Very nice sunny morning ...



Stayed nice all day, leading to a very nice sunset ...



Looks rather similar to the sunset a week earlier .. same place :)

November 3rd - nice day again

November 4th "Had a brief thunderstorm last night, and this morning the sky is blue again"

And today .. November 5th, Guy Fawkes Day which nobody here seems to care about! And rather ironic too, what with him trying to blow up parliament, and the current Thai government really honestly trying to push the boundaries a bit far with their amnesty plans.



(above) I stopped on the way to work - view over part of Patong beach from way up on the hill.



(above) 34°C at lunchtime (in the shade). Not too bad :)

That's the weather! Forecast - more sun. It's high season! Just don't be surprised if there is a bit of rain. It happens.

See you in Phuket!

Oh, and if you need a hotel - look at Agoda.com.