It's Only The Weather

I'd like to start with a poem about the weather.

Whether the weather be fine,
Or whether the weather be not.
Whether the weather be cold,
Or whether the weather be hot.
We'll weather the weather.
Whatever the weather,
Whether we like it or not!

I started this Phuket Weather Blog in 2006 just after starting the Jamie's Phuket Blog. At one point, the weather blog was getting more visitors than the main Phuket blog, I guess because everyone worries about what the weather will be like on holiday. And I like to tell people "don't worry" .... I get many comments about holidays in the low season with sunny weather, or mostly sunny weather. Phuket is generally a hot tropical environment. There's lots of sun. But look around at all the green hills. That means there has to be rain too! Average yearly rainfall is somewhere around 2500mm or 100 inches. Compare that to a so-called rainy city in England - Manchester gets only about 800mm per year on average. Sounds scary, right? Phuket must be very wet! The thing is most rain falls in sudden downpours / thunderstorms. It's not drizzly English rain. So a sunny day might suddenly get an hour of rain. Does that make it a rainy day? What I am saying is - don't worry too much about the weather in Phuket. We don't get big storms, we don't get typhoons or cyclones. We do get some sh*tty days sometimes, and sometimes you get a few in a row, and if you are here on holiday with a mostly wet week, well, bad luck! You are one of the unlucky ones.

I'm trying to summarise the weather because of course many people ask me about it. Many questions about "what will the weather be like on this or that date?". Answer - I don't know exactly. Probably OK unless you are unlucky. Wettest months on average are October, September and May. But that does not mean it rains all the time and you'll probably have a nice trip in those months anyway. And you might come in December expecting "high season" weather and get 2 days of rain. It does rain in high season although the monthly averages for December, January and February in particular are low.

After 8 years of blogging the weather in Phuket I have no plan to stop this blog although want to spend more time on the Phuket Blog and with a full time job managing Sunrise Divers in high season and my family, something needs to take a break. So - next few months, the weather in Phuket is going to be mostly OK. It's high season now, the southwest winds have stopped, dive trips are going to the Similan islands, there may be more rain to come, but DON'T WORRY!

Want to get updates on the weather, well you can follow me on Twitter (@jamiemonk). I tend to mention the weather most days along with other Phuket news, photos etc.

And right here on this blog there are webcams so you can check the weather NOW.

Best webcam is the one at Karon Beach. There's also one at Patong beach.

And there's the weather radar, good for spotting rain before it gets here.

But for now, I think updating this blog is one too many things. See you on Twitter or in Phuket!

(oh, by the way, today was partly sunny, partly cloudy, warm (some might say hot) and seas are calm)