A very happy birthday to my little girl, 8 years old on Friday. A turning point in terms of presents. No Barbies this year, but a CD player with some bedtime story CD's (and I am sure she'll be borrowing my Norah Jones too) and a mobile phone. Too young? Well, we won't be topping up the credit, and she can really only call Mummy and Daddy. It's more for peace of mind and to make her feel like a big girl.

Thursday had been wet, and Thursday night really wet. I went to Phuket Brewery for a few beers with another long term Phuket resident. In fact he's been here 14 years and it turns out lives in the next street to me.. and we'd never met until Thursday! The rain hammered on the roof as we chatted. The Phuket Gazette reported a mudslide which blocked part of the road between Patong and Karon beaches.

Since we had a birthday party planned for Friday afternoon, this wet weather was not welcome at all. So I had a word with Mother Nature, God, Pacha Mama and Thor and we arranged for Friday to be a glorious sunny day. Thanks guys, I owe you one. Aside from a few gusts of wind blowing paper plates around, weather was perfect for a party. And a few more beers. Last to leave was my Aussie friend whose kids are in the same school as ours. But I reckon he was more drunk than me... I woke nearly midday on Saturday and cracked open a beer from the icebox left over from Friday. Can't remember the last time I had a "breakfast beer"! Saturday was another beautiful day.



Having been a Twitter user for a while, I finally decided to login to Twitpic. If you are a Twit, you can join too. The photo of the sky over our house yesterday was the first thing I "twitted"? "twitpicked"? Anyways, will surely add some more... Jamie on TwitPic. Indeed have added a photo of this weeks Phuket Gazette, as they printed a photo I took during last weeks Phuket Photo Walk.

Sunday (today) has also been sunny. Just as I was leaving work, my wife called to suggest I came along to the Phuket Flower Fair at Sapan Hin in Phuket Town, but it was getting late for photos and the place was absolutely packed. I could not find a parking space, and with the light fading I decided to head home.. will check out the flower fair tomorrow or Tuesday. It's on until August 2nd, flower lovers!

We've now had a few grey days again. A typical low season pattern is developing - a few nice days, a few "less nice" days and back to nice. I hope it will be back to nice tomorrow afternoon as we'll be having a party for my daughters 8th birthday. 8 years. Wow. 8 years since she was born, not in Phuket but in Chumphon, my wife's home town. 8 years ago today I know exactly where I was. At the time I worked as a freelance dive instructor, and freelancers tend to say yes to anything! I'd been offered a decent payment to teach a night dive specialty course to 2 people. We had already been on the 22nd, on a longtail boat from Patong. It was a bit bouncy as I recall and one of the students was seasick. I had intended to do 2 dives on the first night, but we only managed 1. So on the 23rd July 2001 we headed out again in the longtail. It was less rough, we did the 2 dives needed to complete the course, I think the 2 students enjoyed it, but taking the work did mean I would miss the actual birth of my daughter. I took the bus to Chumphon next morning and arrived a couple of hours after she was born. Happiest moment of my life.

Just thought I'd share that with you. Take your mind off the grey and wet weather.

Not seen much sun since Saturday. Yesterday there was meant to be a partial eclipse of the sun visible from Phuket. In fact the sun was totally eclipsed. By clouds. In some parts of Asia there was a total eclipse - see BBC Report.

Despite the grey weather, the dive shop has been busy. 3 different dive courses at the same time this week. Another customer came to book a day trip. His non diving wife was with him and started talking about a website she'd been reading about Phuket, written by a foreign guy who's been here for a long time, has got 2 kids and who recommends that people check out Sunrise Divers here in Phuket for their dive trips. Er, I think you mean my website? She was quite a fan. Thank you for that, made my day!

I thought about taking a photo of a grey sky over the beach this morning, but did not want to get my camera wet. It's dry this afternoon with a hint of sun appearing. For the latest Phuket weather conditions look at the links on the left side - radar, webcam, weather station.

Seems like quite a few days since an update here.. Blame it on the weather and my poor health. I've NOT has swine flu but have had one of those colds that sneakily moves around from sinuses to chest to head to throat. Nothing too debilitating, but I had a week of no beers, lots of tea and Tiffy, early nights.. except I did stay up a bit late watching the Ashes. The weather towards the end of last week was unspectacular. No heavy rain, but not much sun on Thursday and Friday. Nothing to spoil your day, but nevertheless rather grey and unfriendly. There was sporadic rain on Thursday, none that I recall on Friday, but the wind was quite strong. We had a couple of seasick customers who were out on dive trips on Thursday.

The weather slowly improved from Thursday to Saturday and so did I! Saturday morning was bright and sunny, some cloud, but a very nice morning for the Phuket Photo Walk, part of a worldwide photo walk in 900 towns and cities. A very enjoyable morning. I'll write more about the walk on Jamie's Phuket next week. With reference to this blog, the important fact is that the weather was good. I ended up with about 40 photos that are not bad... a taster...

 

 

Some more photos now on my Flickr page... I had forgotten about Flickr, had not uploaded any photos for more than 2 years until yesterday!

Oh, today (Sunday) was a very nice sunny day. And even better, England are going to win the 2nd Ashes test! See you next week...

You'll find Phuket weather averages on many websites - rainfall, temperature... and the data seems about right to me, but I never see any mention of where the data comes from, where it was measured exactly or what years it is based on. So I was happy to find a Danish guy living in Patong who has been measuring the rainfall since 1998. Every day. Thank you very much to Steen for sending me his data for the last 11 years. He says he's using a rain measuring gauge called Rain-o-Matic made by a company called Pronamic. Now, of course there can be variation in rainfall around Phuket. Showers and thunderstorms can be very isolated. It can rain in Karon Beach, not in Patong. It can rain in Patong, but not 5km over the hill in Kathu where I live. BUT given 11 years worth of data, things should average out pretty well!

Rainfall Averages for Phuket 1998 - 2009



What can we learn from this? Well, it does agree with most other averages I have seen. I am surprised to see October as the wettest month... but then again an average October can see some heavy rain early in the month, and then as the SW monsoon winds disappear you get some heavy thunderstorms later in the month which last only an hour but can be very heavy. There IS plenty of sun in October too, and later in the month the seas are often calm and the main diving season really gets going.

Best months - well, sure December - February. The data from Steen shows 3 years (2002, 2005 and 2006) with no recorded rain in February. December varies from 2mm in 1999 up to 131mm in 2004. But on average these 3 months are the best for a hot sunny Phuket holiday. March gets a bit wetter, but can vary wildly - from 6mm in 2004 up to 249mm in 2001. Mostly this will be brief heavy thunderstorms, as March is a very hot month. You don't get much in the way of wind or bad weather. A one hour thunderstorm on a hot day can be a good thing! April is a very hot month and again gets thunderstorms, but the seasons can start to change in late April.

May is the start of the "wet season" and you often get more rain, as is shown. But I think it is clear that June and July are not too bad for a summer holiday. This year has seen the driest June (50mm rain) since Steen started measuring data. Wettest was 2006 (over 400mm!). August looks surprisingly wet too, but again a lot of variance over the years ranging from just 89mm of rain in 2005 up to over 500mm in 2000. September I thought was the wettest month. I think compared to October, September is not as nice - you will still get wind and waves due to SW monsoon winds, which then die out in October.

How many days does it rain?

Well, how do you define a rainy day? I would say there are very few "rainy days" in Phuket at any time of year. I would call it a rainy day if the rain falls for long periods, skies are grey and the weather forces you to change your plans. The kind of day when you crack open a beer at the hotel bar at 10am and think glum thoughts.

Well, the graph below shows the average number of days that recorded "some rain". Could be 2mm, could be 100mm in a day. As I say, many days have just short bursts of rain and are still what you'd call a "nice day"!



Even taking into account what I just said about short bursts of rain and isolated thunderstorms, you can see that the "low season" summer months from May - August have totally dry days more than 50% of the time. I keep telling people that the summer is not a bad time to come! From December to March, very few rainy days. Again, plenty of yearly variance - the month of June 2009 saw only 7 days with any kind of rain, the same as in February 2006. In 2008 there were only 120 days in the whole year with some rainfall, compared to a high of 171 days in 2000.

Oh, the weather is such a fickle friend! You can come to Phuket in January and still get rained on. You can come in a "wet" month and have great weather. Following averages does not mean 100% that the weather will be better in March compared to July. A good chance, sure, but for example March this year saw over 180mm of rain.. in 2008 only 15mm was measured in March. So I say this... don't worry too much about the weather!

Ha! We are now into my favourite weather blogging time of year. From the wet wet day on Tuesday last week to 2 scorching hot days on Thursday and Friday, and then just as I thought we'd have a nice weekend, BAM! The first real low season double whammy of the year. 2 days of really sh*tty wet and windy weather on Saturday and Sunday. Maybe the wettest days of the year, certainly the wettest weekend. The wind was strong too, lots of bits of tree all over the roads on Sunday morning, and lots of water on the roads both days. Our garden was soggy, but the area around our house does not flood.

Saturday morning was actually not too bad. I took the kids out for some breakfast at a little restaurant on the edge of Phuket town near the Darasamut School. One noodle soup, one fried rice with chicken, one omelet with rice, ice tea and water.. 95 Baht. I think we'll go there again! But the rain started late morning and did not stop all day, so it seemed. Certainly not beach weather and I was not thinking of heading out to take arty dark sky photos either! In any case, poor Jamie has been a little under the weather for a few days so an easy day at home was not a burden!

Actually, Sunday was probably worse. Strong winds, rain all morning.. the photo below was taken by my friend Mik outside the Hilton at Karon Beach:



Dive trips were cancelled, winds were up to 25 knots, waves of 3m or more.. and of course the electricity went off at our office. Twice. A total of 3 hours without power on Sunday afternoon.

It had dried up by late afternoon and today has been dry so far with patches of sun, but still windy and again some dive trips did not run due to the big waves. Very sensible. Big waves are not safe and not fun! Just read in the news today that a ferry sank between Phi Phi and Phuket yesterday - no customers on board, and the 5 crew got off safely. Sunk by big waves.

• Phi Phi ferry sinks, Sunday 12th July

Thai news reports floods in Phang Ngs province, and Khao Sok national park is closed for a few days. Also reports of heavy rain on the east coast in Surat Thani and Chumphon. Camille reports similarly wet and windy weather on his Koh Samui blog.

Winds right now still gusting to 15-20 knots. If you want to know the weather at this exact moment, try these sources:

• Wind and Rain Live Weather Station at Nai Yang Beach Phuket
• Live Webcam and Karon Beach Phuket

The Nai Yang weather station also shows graphs of recent data - rainfall, windspeed etc.. It says the rainfall was nearly 60mm on Saturday and over 80mm on Sunday. This may vary with exact location, but anyway... very wet. The wind forecast on Windguru is showing some sustained winds from the west for a few more days, calming slightly, but for sure this is the first of the real monsoon storms. We'll get these now and then, lasting 2 - 3 days. Nothing destructive, but certainly not what you want on a beach holiday :) Just remember there is more to Phuket than beaches. Get out and explore - have a look at Things to Do in Phuket.

Those heavy rains on Tuesday are a dim memory. The last 2 days have been full-on heat once more. Can't we maybe get something in between. A nice "partly sunny" day, not too hot... please? I am not one to moan about the heat.. I surely do prefer roasting to freezing, and I did choose to live here. Back in 1999, living in Honduras without 24 electricity at my house, the heat sometimes got too much. I'd be waking up at 3am for a cold shower, open the window and hope for a puff of breeze. But back in England later that year before coming to Thailand I found it too cold for my liking. And those long winter nights are something I don't miss either.

Managed a quick walk on Karon Beach yesterday lunchtime. A quick walk because it was too hot for a long walk! A good day to be a tourist for sure, get a tan, dip in the pool, a cold beer, a nice Thai lunch. I have a day off tomorrow and that will be just about the plan!



And now.. the photoshoppped version...



Today is the first day since Tuesday that I have been feeling 100% (well maybe 80%) well. Had a headache and sinus pains and lack of appetite for a few days. Hell, not even had a single beer for 4 days. That can't be right! Picked up my work permit today and paid the 3,000 Baht renewal fee (1 year). The Labour Dept. is near Sapan Hin, and I had time for a walk around the shoreline before the 8:30am opening time of the work permit office. There are lots of mangroves in the area and it seems mangrove saplings have recently been planted. It was a beautiful morning. Not too hot at 8:30am, and there are always people out walking at Sapan Hin.

After the dryest June since at least 1998, we have had a bit of wet weather this week to start July. I can say with authority that June was the dryest for 11 years as I have been sent 11 years worth of daily rainfall data by a resident of Patong. I have been analysing the data and will post some of the averages soon.

Monday was cloudy but I saw no rain, but you could feel it coming. Tuesday started dry, dark clouds closed in, but there was little in the way of wind. Then in the late morning the rain lashed down for a couple of hours. Really lashed down, heaviest rain for a long long time. And wouldn't you know it, the rain did for our elecric supply. Something shorted somewhere and we didn't get power back until 4pm. I was not silly enough to head out in the rain to take photos, but someone at the Phuket Wan website did! Looks like the rain was worse in Patong.




After all that, I spoke to a customer who had been out diving at Shark Point and the King Cruiser Wreck, some 20km east of Phuket. They had no rain at all! These heavy showers can be quite isolated.

Today started off with clear blue skies, a lovely morning. There was some rain in the afternoon, but did not last long. I paid a visit to Wat Sam Kong, the local temple of the Sam Kong area in the Northwest of Phuket Town. It's maybe 3km from our house and I have never stopped there! There's a big Phuket Temples section on Jamie's Phuket :)



And there was still time for a swim with the kids in the local pool. My 7 year old daughter has been having swimming lessons for a couple of weeks and has been transformed from a splashing octopus into a mermaid. She is fairly zipping across the pool now. Proud dad moment, do excuse me.

I now have actual rainfall data for Phuket going back to 1998. A Danish guy called Steen has been measuring the daily rainfall at his house at the south end of Patong for the last 11 years. I am very happy to have found this, and thanks to Steen for sending me the data. Sometime in the next week, I will calculate some real Phuket rainfall averages based on actual measurements over these years.

Quick summary of the last few days in Phuket. Friday was again warm and sunny, light winds, very small waves at the beaches. Will July be as dry as June? Saturday started a bit wet. Dark clouds over the hills. Beach? No. But there is always a plan B. We got up late anyway, drove to the Central Festival shopping center just outside Phuket Town, ate in the food court, considered watching a movie, but the next showing of Ice Age 3 was at 2pm... so what to do? Things to do in Phuket when it's a bit wet. Bowling! The Big C shopping center next to Central has the "CS Bowl" 10 pin bowling alley and amazingly we have never been. I used to do some bowling when I was a kid, but have not played for about 15 years.. maybe more.

It's very cheap - just 60 Baht a game plus shoe hire. You can buy a member card for 100 Baht to get discounts too. We had to be quick as the whole alley was booked for a regional competition starting 2:30pm. Some of the "pro" bowlers were practicing already. We had a laugh. My 4 year old boy is obviously a bit small and could barely lift a ball. My 7 year old daughter had a go, knocked down some pins, sent plenty into the gutter, but did manage a spare on 1 frame! Amazing! As for me.. I managed a score of 129 which included 2 strikes. Must be my best score for at least 15 years :)



The afternoon got sunnier and the evening was warm and dry, good BBQ weather.

Today has been wetter, not much sun, rumbles of thunder, the first real un-sunny day for ages, but still there is no monsoon wind blowing. Seas are almost totally calm. Dry again by late afternoon.

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

These figures from Phuket.net.. but there is no indication what data is being used to get these averages, where the rainfall is being measured, how many and what years this is an average of...

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.