Just about the end of October, and I'd say based on the weather, the wind (now blowing a bit from the east and northeast) and the number of divers we suddenly have at the dive shop, it's high season! Last few days have been hot, sunny, but with cool nights, typical of the early months of high season. Clear skies mean cool nights as the daytime heat can escape up to wherever it goes. Note that "cool" in Phuket terms means about 24 or 25 degrees Celsius. I think I've seen my thermometer down to 22 degrees once. Now, October is supposed to be low season still, and October generally has lots of rain, but in the last 3 weeks since we came back from our little holiday, I have measured just 65mm of rain. I think there was more maybe at the end of September and the first week of October, but I don't know, we weren't here in Phuket for a couple of weeks. October is on average the wettest month .. well it's been a dry one this year. Average rainfall for October is over 500mm, and this year even if I add something for the first week, it's probably been the driest October since who-knows-when. I have rain data back to 1998 and the driest October I have records for was 2008, but still with over 300mm of rain. Does this mean we're in for a wet spell later? No sign of it right now that's for sure.

Last update on the weather blog was October 21st. Not really been much change in the weather since then. A bit of wind blew, and the winds have now certainly shifted to the "northeast monsoon" though there's not much wind around at all. Last week it was still the Phuket Vegetarian Festival. It ended on the 24th. I was up early on the 22nd to visit Kathu shrine, got there before 6am (before sunrise) to watch some piercing ceremonies ...



And then to follow the procession through Kathu village. Statues of the emperor gods are carried by groups of young guys and residents throw firecrackers...





More about the festival, thoughts and photos on the Phuket blog ...

• Phuket Vegetarian Festival 2012

We did have some rain this week, actually it rained heavily for an hour at Karon Beach, though at our house near Phuket Town it was dry! That was on the 24th, I don't recall any rain since then. I am now back at work every day except Saturdays. I got sunburn working in the garden this past Saturday and was very happy to head to the beach for a few drinks in the evening.



(above) Sunset and jumping son at The Beach Bar, Cape Panwa

On Sunday (28th) the weather was even better. And the sunset ...



Meanwhile, tropical storm Son Tinh hit Vietnam, and right now there's Sandy which is over the NE United States causing floods and more. Stay safe everyone.

Defining the start of "high season" is a bit tricky. Officially, it's November 1st.. or 15th, depends who you ask. Really it depends on the weather, but it's related to the wind, not the rain. Some people seem to expect that there will be no rain in high season, so when they visit Phuket in "high season", get somewhat shocked by a wet day. And it can happen often - November is on average the wettest of the 6 high season months - see Phuket Monthly Rain Averages. No, it's all about the wind. The prevailing wind in "low season" is from the southwest, and in high season from the northeast. These winds bring very different weather. The northeast wind is drier and cooler so on average there is less rain. It's still hot, but can be a degree or 2 cooler that the hotter times of year and night temperatures can be as low as 23 degrees C - which sounds warm, but if you live here, it feels nice and cool.

I keep forgetting to update the weather blog, it's been 9 days since the last update due to the fact that I am working, tired and it's the Phuket Vegetarian Festival now, which started on the 14th. I have been out several times in the early morning to take photos, some of which are online on Flickr already - see 2012 Phuket Vegetarian Festival Photos. The weather has continued to be very nice, with hardly any rain, just a few showers, a couple of little thunderstorms, but we've been having light winds and hot (if a bit cloudy) days .. the wind is blowing from different directions all the time, so the steady NE wind might be here soon. With hardly any wind, the heat builds until a bit of thunder arrives, there's a lot of that when the seasons are changing.

I missed the opening ceremonies for the vegetarian festival this year but have been doing plenty since and have been into Phuket Town most evenings with the family to eat. There's a little restaurant near the market which does vegetarian food during the festival. It's next to the traffic circle with a fountain in the middle - this one:



(above) Phuket Town at night, 16th October

I'll write about the 2012 vegetarian festival in more detail on the Phuket Blog in a few days. I've not really had my blogging hat on at all since we got back from our holidays 2 weeks ago, but the kids go back to school this week, so I think we'll get back in a routine. Weather for the festival has been great - sunny mornings for street processions, although .. that might be nice for watching, but if you are walking 10km with a sword in your face, you might want some cloud cover and not baking hot tropical sun! Also, too much sun is not the best for photos, the light can be very strong. On the 17th (last Wednesday) I went to Sapam shrine in the morning, and then for an evening procession of the gods in Kathu in the evening.





And on Thursday 18th I was at Sam Kong shrine .. another hot morning but quite cloudy - better for portrait photos without harsh shadows.



Yesterday on the 20th I was in Phuket Town in the morning for a big procession. Weather - perfect. Here's the dragon statue ...



And here's some lads carrying a statue from the shrine through the streets. They have stopped to allow people to throw firecrackers. BOOM!



And we're not done yet - tomorrow there's a big procession starting at Kathu shrine, I plan to be there before 6am. The final big day is on Tuesday before they have closing ceremonies on Wednesday. No sign of any bad weather on the way this week. Nah, it'll probably rain in November instead of October this year just to annoy some tourists! To be honest, much of the time, low season is OK. You can be unlucky or you can be lucky with the weather. Want no rain? The Atacama desert is lovely :)

Well, it's been a week now since we got back from our little holiday to Hua Hin (quite nice place, we might go back - see here for Hua Hin hotels), Suan Phung and Chumphon. I'm back at work at Sunrise Divers, high season seems to be here early, but I am sure there's got to be a bit more wet weather to come sometime before the real high season starts. This week has been almost all blue skies.



(above) Karon Beach, 10th October

People were freaking 5 or 6 days ago about tropical storm Gaemi which was heading inland on the usual route across Vietnam, people were worried it would "hit" Bangkok, even though it was clear to see that the storm would be downgraded to a depression by then anyway. Nothing happened. Of course. For storm tracking, there's a great website called Tropical Storm Risk - you can sign up for storm alerts by email too (I have). I don't think Phuket has ever in recorded history been hit by a tropical storm strength system. And only once in the last more than 100 years has Thailand been hit by a big storm, that was called Typhoon Gay in 1989 and it hit my wife's home town Chumphon. Wasn't funny, she said. Especially as her family's house was right by the river.

I have not been doing daily weather photos, no time for that, back at work .. but on the 10th as well as the blue sky photo above, I did a little video at Karon beach :



And then we had a fantastic sunset later while eating dinner at The Beach Bar, a little restaurant at Cape Panwa.



Great weather! Yes, it is still low season. But looking at Windguru, looks like the winds are changing in the next week. Hardly any wind at all forecast. Once the winds change to a solid northeast, then it's high season, the beaches are calm and the temperature is a tiny bit cooler. This end of October period coming up might have some thunderstorms. If it's hot and there's not much wind, you have to get thunderstorms. But looks good overall for anyone visiting this coming week.

AND on Sunday 14th the Phuket Vegetarian Festival starts! My favourite festival continues until 24th October. I plan to see some of the big street processions in Phuket Town, these take place early morning every day from the 17th to 23rd. And I do plan to try very hard to stick to the special festival diet. What is the festival all about? Well, try reading : The Phuket Vegetarian Festival. Or here are a few photos from last year ...











Here's a Schedule for the Phuket Vegetarian Festival 2012. I am looking forward to the next 2 weeks!

Long time since a weather blog update, as I've not been in Phuket since the last update on Friday 21st September. Well, we were here on the 24th for a day, but had family visiting and my son was sick, so blogs did not get a look in. Let's start with NOW. This morning is sunny, I can see lots of blue sky from our house, hope it stays that way - after a holiday our garden looks a right mess! So today will be a cleaning up day, and then I'm back to work at Sunrise Divers tomorrow. There's no sign of any early change in the seasons - I have looked at the Windguru forecast and the next weeks looks fairly windy, with the wind from the west - so it's still "low season". Rain will come and go as normal. I get a lot of questions about "what will the weather be like on (insert date)?" and the answer in the low season is always the same : Weather will be a mixed bag, make the most of it!

Now a quick look back over the last couple of weeks. We were near Phuket on the weekend 22nd - 23rd September, on an overnight trip to Racha Yai island which was great and I will get it blogged soon. We stayed at Ban Raya Resort, and we got very lucky with the weather - very hot and sunny while we could see across the water that on the Saturday at least it was raining a lot in Phuket. We actually got too much sun, my kids got a bit burned (so did Dad) with lots of snorkeling, swimming and a bit of exploring the island.



(above) Sunrise at Racha Yai island, 23rd September

From 25th September until yesterday, we were away from Phuket completely, I heard reports of the weather here being wet and then sunny, no great surprise for low season. My darn rain gauge seems to be almost dead, so I have no rainfall data for these 10 days. One friend Skyped me to say my gauge would be overflowing. Seems a few days were very wet, but overall the weather here has been good. Meanwhile, we headed north to Chumphon, then on to Hua Hin, then further north to a place called Suan Phung in the hills west of Bangkok, then back to Hua Hin and Chumphon. We had mostly decent weather, a couple of wetter moments, but a very nice family holiday thanks.... a few photos ::



(above) Beer by the beach, Hua Hin



(above) Good seafood



(above) Hua Hin view from Khao Takiab temple



(above) Feeding the sheep at the Scenery farm, Suan Phung



(above) Family at Ao Thungsang beach about 40km north of Chummphon

Normal life starts again now! Back home, though the kids still have a couple of weeks holiday before starting back at school. Updates on the weather blog normally come about once per week, but I also update with comments and / or photos on Twitter - see you there!