October is well known as a wet month in Phuket. Most weather pages about Phuket seem to have October as the wettest month, though I think every page except this one uses an old set of data copied and copied again from the internet. My rainfall averages show September as wetter, but every year is different and there can be variations since Phuket is a big island. Anyway, it certainly is October now, but since the last update on the weather blog (9th October) there has been much better weather - after a wet first week in October. So it's been nearly 2 weeks since the last update to the Phuket weather blog ...

For regular updates on the weather in Phuket, photos, news, Phuket gossip etc... you can follow me on :

Twitter @jamiemonk
Instagram @phuketblog

Let's go back in time to October 10th. We can check what the weather was like by seeing what I said on Twitter ...

"At Karon Beach #Phuket this morning ... Sunny and sea is getting calmer too."



(above) At Karon Beach, 10th October.

The vegetarian festival was still on, but I did not wake up early on the 10th.

However, on the 11th ...



Lovely sunny morning, I was in Phuket Town by 7am for the street procession from Jui Tui shrine. Lots of interesting face piercings and lots of firecrackers! A lot more pictures and details on the Phuket blog : Phuket Vegetarian Festival 2013 (Part 1).

And on the 12th, another sunny morning .. well, it was not sunny when I woke up, as I woke up before sunrise to visit Kathu shrine nice and early and watch some grizzly face piercing taking place.



And then a procession through the village of Kathu ...



More photos and blog post about the Kathu shrine procession : Phuket Veg Festival 2013 Part II.

Was a hot, hot day!

On the 13th ... "Phuket weather today - sunny, quite a bit of dark cloud around, would not be surprised to see some isolated thundershowers."

Just about now, the winds are changing. The stronger southwest winds have stopped and with little wind, hot days and high humidity there is always a chance of a quick thunderstorm lasting 20 - 30 minutes. Maybe an hour, and then sun again!

On the 14th ...



A lovely sunny day, photo above I put on Instagram which is a good way to quickly share the weather, so do follow me please if you are an Instagram user!

October 15th, on Twitter I said "It's lovely and sunny in Phuket today :)" so I guess it was lovely and sunny!

October 16th "Some light rain in the air early this morning, sun is now burning through." and in the night there was a huge fire at the enormous Supercheap store north of Phuket Town, which is/was a big warehouse style store, no aircon, rather basic construction, but cheap. Amazingly seems like nobody died, though the store was completely destroyed.

October 17th "Phuket weather this morning, hazy, cloudy, warm. Not sure if the dark cloud to my east is cloud or smoke from the Supercheap fire!" (only a few km as the crow flies from my house).

October 18th "Sunny morning and almost calm seas at Karon beach"

And a reminder - you can check any time what the weather is like here, at least during daylight hours - check the webcam at Karon Beach on this blog .. or the webcam at Patong Beach.

And on the 18th, all the family came back from the in-laws in Chumphon, so we had a dinner by the sea at The Beach Bar, Cape Panwa.



(above) Sunset 18th October

19th October ... and this actually was a day off ... but the weather ... "Grey start to the day ... and we had nearly 50mm of rain last night. Sunny all week when I am working. Saturday grey and damp.". My day off! Sun please!

20th October .. also not the best "Light rain falling at Karon Beach, rather a grey day here in Phuket."

I mean, nothing really bad, just a bit grey and damp, which continued next day despite a good start. Twitter went like this ...

"Looks like it'll be a sunny day here. No wind, season changing."

but later "Weather update, I was wrong, not a sunny day .. mostly grey and drizzly."

Again, not really bad weather, a day out would still be good! But in October you can get some wet days for sure! The sunnier weather really starts when a northeast wind comes a long and blows the clouds away. Soon! But importantly for things like diving and days out on the water - there is almost no wind, so that means nice calm seas.

22nd October and today 23rd - much nicer weather, mostly sunny, some cloud, some light rain, even a quick heavy 20 minute shower at Karon beach yesterday. Nice and warm, high season is just about here :)

A photo at Karon beach this morning :



See you in Phuket soon! If you're coming soon - need a hotel? Have a look at Agoda.com for online booking.

Happy Travels!

Well, hello again! It's October and the Phuket Vegetarian Festival is happening right now until the 14th. I have not updated the weather blog for quite a while, since I was not in Phuket from September 19th until October 3rd. The last update on the blog was on September 17th just before we went on holiday. So for a couple of weeks I am sure Phuket had some weather, but I was elsewhere ... not far away, we went up the east coast of Thailand to Chumphon and Hua Hin. And the weather there was a mixed bag of sun and rain, so I guess Phuket had the same! I know it was not all sun from looking at friends Facebook updates, and my rain gauge showed 168mm of rain had fallen in those 2 weeks.

For regular updates on weather in Phuket, news, Phuket gossip etc... you can follow me on :

Twitter: jamiemonk
Instagram: phuketblog

Oh, go on then, I know you want to see a few photos from our holidays ...



(above) Fisherman at the beach near Pak Nam Chumphon



(above) Wat Huay Mongkol near Hua Hin



(above) View over Hua Hin from Khao Hin Lek Fai viewpoint

Enough of that, nothing to do with Phuket weather!

Well, we drove back to Phuket on October 3rd and it was lovely and sunny in Chumphon, but we hit rain as we approached the west coast ... it was wet in Phuket and it's been quite wet ever since then! I mean, not constant rain, but some rain every day and several of the days in the last week have been wet, grey, drizzly and yukky! Occasional heavy showers, a few bursts of sun.

For a couple of days, a bit of rain is OK actually (yeh, not if you are on a nice beach holiday) ... it's quite a few degrees cooler, and it was just the right weather for my wife and I to spend 2 days painting the living room and having a big clean up. Also nice to be sleeping at night without the need for aircon. I normally love aircon, but once the temperature is down to 25 degrees, it's chilly! Cold enough that I have to wear a t-shirt in the house :)

Well, OK, a couple of days rain is fine, but once the painting was done I wanted to attend some of the vegetarian festival ceremonies. However on the 4th it was very wet "It's raining cats and dogs over my house!" is what I Tweeted so I skipped the opening ceremonies - I normally like to visit our nearest Chinese shrine for the pole raising ceremony at the start of the festival.

Then on the 5th ... my wife and I started eating the vegetarian diet that many people stick to during the festival, but the weather ... a Tweet said "Raining pretty much all day here in #Phuket". We headed to Phuket Town in the evening for food and drinks at 2 different restaurants - both worth a look : Kopitiam by Wilai and Naowarat. Phuket Town is the place to be for the festival.

On the 6th, sun please? No. The morning Tweet said "Woke up to rain, rain and more rain this morning ... about 160mm in the last 2 days. #Phuket". In the evening we headed into Kathu village for some food ...





(above) in Kathu village - the shrine and fresh spring rolls being prepared.

Well, on the 7th .. back to work at Sunrise Divers Phuket! Yes, high season is not too far off though you'd not believe it from the weather, so plenty of work to be done and lots of people wanting to dive this coming season, so lots of emails to answer. Too busy working to notice the weather, but I seem to recall it was wet and grey. And in the evening ... a frustrated Tweet "Darn weather ! Went to Kathu village for evening procession, but it p1$$ed down"

And on the 8th, well I thought about waking up at 5:30 to visit Sam Kong shrine to watch some face piercing, but ... too tired and I just knew it would rain. And it did rain! Took me 1 hour to drive 20km to work due to slow traffic in the rain and getting stuck behind a small festival parade at Karon Beach. The guys below were loading up a god statue into a pickup truck a I passed in the rain.



And driving home, things looked like this ::



(above) early evening weather near Phuket Town, 8th October.

No sign of a let up, that's 6 pretty wet days in a row! And I want to get to some vegetarian festival events! If I'm not too lazy!

OK so after all the wet days, it was rather a surprise to wake up this morning to sunshine and blue sky. And no rain! I stopped at Karon beach at 9am right before work ...



(above) at Karon beach this very morning (9th October)

And it stayed sunny all day. Looking good! BUT .. on the way home suddenly heavy rain, maybe not everywhere, but certainly around Phuket Town and Kathu ... lots of water on the roads. A light drizzle continued with a few gaps for the next few hours.



(above) A bit wet on the way home today!

Well, light drizzle be damned! I ate some noodles in Kathu village this evening and took a few photos in the shrine ... and the rain came down a bit heavier while I was in there! Stopped again later ... really hoping for some more sun the next few days.





(above) At Kathu shrine this evening 9th October.

Still 4 days of the vegetarian festival to go! There are street processions in Phuket Town on the 10th, 11th, 12th and 13th.

And let's hope the weather gets nicer, please, thank you!