This will be quite a quick Phuket weather update - it's 10pm on Sunday and my parents are visiting from England, so don't want to be too long on the 'puter. The weather this week has been mostly very good. Hardly any rain except for some afternoon showers here and there (I mean, maybe there were harder showers in some parts of the island, but I hardly saw any). Hoping this weather continues! Mum and Dad arrived on Friday evening, and although I was working today, holidays start tomorrow... and where will we be going on holiday? Phuket! Of course, I know the weather is not perfect at this time of year. But we have little choice about when to take the holiday - kids school is off until the last week of October. I do find that low season weather is never that bad once you're out and about. Rain looks worse through a window, and it's rare that we get terrible weather. So I look forward to our holiday!

A quick look back to a few days ago - On Thursday 22nd September I stopped at Kata Beach before going to the dive shop. The weather was like this all day - beautiful blue skies, perfect weather. Low season has quite a lot of this if you are lucky :)



It's not all been quite so perfect all week, but pretty damn good! Yesterday despite the jet lag we all headed out for some exploration - nothing too much on the first day, though. Started at Koh Sirey Temple on a hill to the east of Phuket Town. Sirey has been tarted up a bit recently. The mangroves hide lots of monkeys and a "Monkey Seeing" area has been made.. a bit dirty, but you do see monkeys - so many that there is need for warnings on the road :



And then after lunch at the ever popular Kaewjai restaurant near the bus station we visited an old mansion in the old part of Phuket Town - Chinpracha House has been turned into a museum, a chance to walk around an old house, part of Phuket's history. It's full of old photos, furniture and despite the heat outside, its cool inside. We'd been once before on a tour of Phuket Town, this time we spent a bit longer looking around.



Blue skies! More would be appreciated ... holidays start tomorrow and so does the Phuket Vegetarian Festival which runs from September 26th - October 6th. Tomorrow (Monday 26th) we'll go to Kathu Shrine for the ceremony that marks the start of the festival. We also plan a few days at Khao Sok National Park this week. Then back for the last few days of the festival. Also the Worldwide Photo Walk on 2nd October which has a Phuket walk planned around the old town with (I am sure) vegetarian festival photos being the main subject!

Well, we're well into September now, which is often quoted as the wettest month in Phuket (although the averages that I have show October to be wetter) and sure we've had some rain. The last couple of updates on this blog are the same - some sun, some rain, very hit and miss weather (see updates from September 13th and 6th). There has certainly been nice weather, but you find at this time of year that things get very unsettled. This is normal for September. One day sunny, then next day you wake up to grey clouds. Or take today for example - looked a bit grim first thing in the morning. I Tweeted "looks like today will be less than lovely. Grey skies and quite breezy too", but then a little later it was sunny, and then mid afternoon, the rain was bucketing down - been raining most of the afternoon and evening actually. So tomorrow will probably be lovely!

Got lazy with my camera after taking nice photos on Tuesday last week... actually busy at work - a lot of the customers for our dive shop book online, so this time of year, a month or two before start of high season is busy, plus there are updates to make, I added a new boat onto the website... so here's another photo from last Tuesday.. this guy had come down to the water to enjoy the view, same as me.



The varying weather this week is demonstrated by what I write on Twitter - please do Follow me on Twitter for Phuket related news and blog updates.

September 15th : I can see black clouds and blue skies from my window...going to be another mixed bag today!

September 16th: Friday morning and looking like a sunny day in store here in Phuket. Some cloud around, but it's gonna be a nice day.

September 17th: I know that a hot day in Phuket is not news, but I tell you today is HOT!

Saturday 17th was a day off - and we were happy that one of our favourite restaurants was opening again after a few months low season hiatus. "The Beach Bar" at Cape Panwa is a small simple place right on the beach. We went late afternoon and despite some evening cloud we had a kind of sunset.. looking towards the Big Buddha.



Now of course I don't mind answering questions, but if the question is something along the lines of "what will the weather be like from September 24th - 29th, or October 3rd - 10th, or October 18th - 25th?" - answer is "Partly Sunny" with a little bit of "Partly Cloudy" and some rain. And then (on average) as we move to November and December there is less rain. I am not saying it won't rain in December, since the weather is not controlled and regulated. December 2010 was wetter than August 2010, even though "on average" August is much wetter. So, as I keep saying, don't worry too much about the weather. Ah now I can't resist it, gotta post some Bob Marley videos...

In the low season (now) I do wish I had the time to update this Phuket weather blog daily, because you never know what the weather is going to do. If I write about a week of rain, whaddaya know.. we get a week of sun starting next day. Now last week was pretty sunny, I paid a nice evening visit to the Karon Temple Market last Tuesday, which had been a lovely sunny day. It did rain a bit in the night, but next morning I Tweeted "it's another absolutely gorgeous morning".. this continued into Thursday, another hot day, a few drips of rain in the night. Friday (9th September) was even hotter, and it was a day spent at home cleaning the house. We'd had a builder in for over a week, and everything was dusty, inside and outside. Spent a couple of hours outdoors and got a nice touch of sunburn on my back. And it was one of those incredible days when I was so busy actually doing real things that I did not turn on the computer all day. No Facebook, no blog, no Twitter.. for a whole day! Too busy to go anywhere and take photos too!

And then .. all change! The weekend came with rain. Saturday started wet, and the sun did not come out all day. The evening was just about dry enough for us to take a walk to the nearby street fair in Kathu (in the "Ket Ho" area). I did not take a camera, as I really thought it would rain.. some photos of the same street fair last year are on the Phuket blog: Kathu Street Fair 2010. Should have taken the camera because the next night (Sunday) really was very wet, and we had no chance to visit the fair, in fact I don't suppose many people did! Sunday was wetter than Saturday. And windy. The wind was very gusty. It howled around our house and I did not sleep too well!

Anyway, Monday started wet but got better. Dive trips had been cancelled based on Sunday's weather, and certainly the morning justified that. By Monday evening, the winds had gone, and YES! Today (Tuesday) the morning was slightly misty, but it was clear the mist would clear. It did. Beautiful morning. I took a detour to work via Chalong Bay. I drove down the road past the zoo to Parlai Seafood restaurant by the water. Realised we have not eaten here for years. Looks nice. Will go soon.

Chalong Bay is a different side of Phuket. By the sea but without endless hotels and tourists. Mostly just fishermen and boats and some restaurants.





The day was just about perfect - now, let's see what happens tomorrow! I am not predicting anything! Will update on Twitter. But tonight the wind has completely gone, its totally calm. Outside our house was so quiet. No wind, not even a single rustling leaf. Good sleeping weather.

I seem to have allowed another week to slip by without updating the weather blog, and of course all has changed. We had a week (a WHOLE week) of wet days from the 23rd - 29th August .. terribly sorry if that coincided with your holidays, we'll do better next time. If your holiday started last Tuesday (31st August) then your story will be rather different to the visitors of the week before! It's been almost all sun and blue skies. The weather changed totally from one day to the next. It was wet, wet, wet, wet, SUNNY! All that rain at the end of August gave a total monthly rainfall of 440mm, which is pretty wet, especially considering almost all of that fell in the second half of the month.

But hey, it's all sunshine again now. So we're back to complaining about the heat. When the rain comes they run and hide their heads .. When the sun shines they slip into the shade. And it has suddenly been very hot. The sun-free days in a bizarre way(as a resident) can be quite nice - the temperature drops several degrees, the air is fresh... just sucks if your street floods. Well, that only lasted a day or so, not a big problem. I did not even see any flooding, it was very isolated.

Weekly updates are about all I can do for this blog, but if you need more frequent, up to the minute Phuket weather news, try these ideas:

1. Follow me on Twitter. I tend to mention the weather every day if I am online.

2. Check the webcams at Karon Beach or Surin Beach (both of which are in Phuket) - helps if you look during our daylight ours. We are like 6 (or is it 7?) hours ahead of Europe, and a heck of a lot more than that ahead of the USA, and we're a bit behind Oz.

You know it is actually nice to have changes in the weather. Last week at Sunrise Divers we had some customers from Saudi Arabia. Even our hot days are cool for them and the rainy days were like a miracle! Allahu Akbar! The sun feels wonderful after a week of rain. You don't miss the water 'til the well runs dry and you don't miss the sun 'til the well overflows!

It's the kind of week when you can't resist playing songs like "Sun is Shining" by Bob Marley, or "Mr Blue Sky" by ELO, or "Here Comes The Sun" by some group from Liverpool. And on the first sunny day, I did actually, literally go and stand in the road outside the dive shop and turn my face to the sun. Feel the sun.

Having been very lazy with the camera recently, trying to make up for that. I stopped yesterday (5th September) at Chalong Temple on the way home from work.



The last sun was hitting the temple before sinking over the hills to the west. Must try that again someday.

And today I stopped at Karon Temple for a little walk around the market that takes place in the temple grounds every Tuesday and Saturday. The evening sun was hitting the temple.. the market is busier after dark. I will pass by again another day and get more photos.



(above) Monk at Karon temple, 6th September.

Forecast: 2-0 to England and more sunny weather in Phuket!