Phuket Weather Blog

April becomes May - It's been mostly hot!

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie Monk in Phuket) — Mon, 13 May 2013 16:14:00 +0000

A long time since the last major Phuket weather blog update! That was April 19th .. since then I have been on holiday with the family around Phuket and Khao Lak. Mum and Dad visiting from England, plenty of days out and lots of relaxing, nothing too strenuous. I was back at work on May 5th with the main diving season coming to an end, have now been quite busy at Sunrise Divers working on website updates, and trying to take one step ahead of the competition! And the kids went back to school again on May 8th after a long summer break, so it's been the start of a new school year, with early mornings, homework and "go to bed!" - thus, not a lot of time for blogging!

Reminder: for regular updates on the weather in Phuket, news, blog updates and photos please do follow me on ...

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A quick weather chat ... it's now mid-May, so the season should be changing, we should be getting some rain and winds blowing from the west. Well, it's not really happened. Yesterday (May 12th) was wet, maybe the wettest day for weeks, but then today has been very sunny. There's hardly any wind and we really do need some rain as the big reservoir between Phuket Town and Patong is getting low.

(above) I did my morning exercise this morning at the reservoir, and loved this tree full of red flowers on the roadside.

(above) Sunset as seen from our house this very evening. The 2 photos above were originally posted on Instagram.

So, the low season is not really here yet, at least the low season weather is not here ... not a huge number of tourists either, it's really worth coming in low season to get bargains on the hotel prices and just take a risk with the weather :)

Here's a quick summary with Tweets and photos of the weather over the last few weeks .....

April 19th - lovely sunny day, maybe a bit hot for parents just arrived from England - here's the sunset at Cape Panwa that evening:

April 20th "A lovely hot sunny day in Phuket today" including a stop at Bang Rong for lunch at the floating restaurant and a walk on a new walkway through the mangroves. A brahminy kite circled above. The east coast of Phuket is way different to the touristy beaches on the west coast.

April 21st - hot and sunny as we explored in Phang Nga, quite a long tiring day actually! Started at Wat Bang Riang which is a bit more than 90 minutes drive from our house, great views, love this place :

(above) Mum and Dad at Wat Bang Riang - we then headed for lunch at Tha Sai Seafood, love the views from here too:

And had a great sunset when we stopped for a little walk at Sarasin Bridge :

I then got sick for a day or 2, and did not move much .. the 22nd and 23rd April were very hot days.

24th April we drove up to Khao Lak, stayed a couple of nights and weather was great. We vowed to head back the next week! I will write about the Khao Lak area soon on the Phuket Blog.

I Tweeted on the 25th "Big beautiful orange sunset this evening across the ocean at Khao Lak. Very peaceful. Now I can see why people like it here!" ... Here's sunset on the 24th:

And on the 25th - a real mixed bag of weather. We took a day trip by speedboat to Tachai island. Weather looked good, but near the island we hit heavy rain and thunder, but fortunately no rough seas. We all got very wet, but when the sun came out it was fierce and .. well, just look :

And here's the pool at Nangthong Bay Resort, photo taken on 26th April in the morning before we left and headed to Khao Sok National Park...

26th was hot, we first visited Sri Phang Nga national park, another place that we plan to revisit, and then headed on to the Cliff and River Resort in Khao Sok. The kids and I managed 30 minutes in the pool before the inevitable jungle rains arrived in the late afternoon - we always get some rain at Khao Sok!

With the rains came this (as seen from our balcony!) ...

And the next day started warm again, but as we drove back to Khao Lak, the rain fell quite hard, so we drove back home rather than 1 night in Khao Lak, that was the 27th. On the 28th, an easier day including a trip to the Expo indoor market in Phuket Town, and a lovely dinner at The Beach Bar with live music from Ali ...

April 29th and a longtail boat ride out to Bang Mud floating restaurant near Coconut Island and then to Rang Yai island for a splash in the sea. Weather, hot of course, but at Rang Yai there was always cloud covering the sun and we could see rain back on the mainland, though it never came our way.

April 30th .. back to Khao Lak for a couple of nights, to relax, check out a few waterfalls and hope for some more great sunset walks on the beach. Lovely. A proper holiday! Sunset below with our kids running on the beach on the 30th.

We did also visit a couple of tsunami memorials, which I have meant to do for years. Will write some more about that later on the Phuket blog. I think it helped our kids to understand. The police boat landed 1.2km from the sea.

Morning of May 1st. No sign of low season.

Welcome to May! And still hardly any rain except that day driving from Khao Sok and a few night time drips. We drove back to Phuket on May 2nd. To be honest I could have stayed a couple more nights in Khao Lak.

Tweet from May 2nd "Good morning from Khao Lak .. Panorama photo of our breakfast view ... pic.twitter.com/gwPBK58ACX"

And we stopped on the way home at Ton Prai waterfall .... Yes, that's me being Tarzan.

Life has been a bit more normal since then ... selected Tweets :

May 3rd "Cloudy with rumbles of thunder this morning and not too hot..."

May 4th "May the 4th be with you" and "Been a really hot day ... Some morning rain but roasting later ..."

(above) Sunset at Cape Panwa, May 4th 2013

So on May 5th I was back to the dive shop, working all week until this lat Saturday (11th).

Weather on the 6th did threaten to be very wet, the photo below shows clouds building up over the hills in the evening :

But then it's been hot again since then apart from a wet Sunday 12th. Here's the sunset on the 7th:

And the sky over our house in the late afternoon, 8th May ... more blue skies :

The photo above from iPhone using the Instaweather app.

Mum and Dad flew back to sunny England on the 9th, and I met an old friend for a couple of beers ... we'd both done our divemaster courses on the island of Utila back in 1996. Not seen him since, but there's the magic of Facebook, nice to see an old face, always. We headed to the After Beach Bar, perfect spot for a beer and sunset view.

(above) Sunset from the After Beach Bar, 9th May

10th May "Another hot sunny day in Phuket ... low season is not here yet! Great diving weather... Shame there are hardly any divers here!"

11th May "Weather update - sun is out .... but I am thinking this day feels like a bit of thunder is coming later."

I was correct on the 11th, as lots of rain fell in the night and in the morning of the 12th. But today was all blue skies again!

Hey, we're up to date! Phuket weather now .... night, dark, insects chirp, will it rain tomorrow?? With low season approaching, updates to the weather blog are likely to be more frequent, since the weather changes every day, or every few days.

Goodnight and please do join me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram!

Oh and check a new website I am just starting for hotel booking : Phuket Hotels Direct

Heat, Songkran, Rain at last .. and sunny again!

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie Monk in Phuket) — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 02:33:00 +0000

So, the last update on the weather blog was April 3rd and the news was all about heat and sunshine, and dropping water levels in the reservoir.As we approached Songkran, the Thai New Year on April 13th we were expecting continued hot weather. Most of Thailand was baking. There were signs of a break in the weather...

I suggest you follow me on Twitter : https://twitter.com/jamiemonk for regular weather updates, news and Phuket information.

On April 4th I Tweeted "It's been hotter than hell for the last 5 weeks. Today I saw rain for 15 mins, which was the first rain I have seen for 5 weeks."

April 6th "a bit cloudy and of course it's plenty hot. But a fair breeze blowing too."

April 8th "Phuket weather this morning is rather hazy again. The winds have died down, it was a bit breezy over the weekend. I can't see any blue sky."

And later on April 8th, the sun burned through and I figured the hazy days might be done.

(above) Blue skies over the dive shop on April 8th

April 9th "Looking like another hazy start, but that sun is already starting to burn through. Prediction : HOT"

April 10th "Ooh! Rain! Not seen this much for weeks. My garden will be happy :)"

We had a grey start on the 10th, and some heavy rain in the middle of the afternoon, but it only lasted about 20 minutes

(above) Rain! First heavy rain I had seen for about 6 weeks! That little Chinese shrine is outside the dive shop where I work (Sunrise Divers at Karon Beach)

11th April "Every Tweeter in Bangkok is Tweeting about rain. It's dry in Phuket" - sounded like Bangkok got a drenching on the 11th with some minor flooding which soon drained away. Phuket was dry again and I had a very nice night on the town with a few friends, doing a little "pub crawl" in old Phuket Town starting with a great dinner at Kopitiam, then on to the Rider Cafe, Roxy Pub, the Anfield Bar ...

(above) Cold beer in an iced glass at the Anfield bar in the old town

(above) Rider cafe in the old town

12th April - looking like Songkran would be a hot one! Here's the view at my house on the 12th .. blue skies, lovely day!

On the 13th, the big water throwing day of Songkran, it was cloudy, there were a few drips of rain, I went out in the afternoon for some watery fun, beers, BBQ and that was that! My wife and kids were in Chumphon on the east coast and said it was heavy rain all day there - certainly not fun Songkran weather :(

After that grey 13th the weather took a turn for the worse ...

April 14th "It's a wet, grey day in Phuket. I did manage my 1 hour walk without rain early this morning, but now it's like an English summer."

and "I saw 2 accident scenes on the steep hill between Chalong and Kata this morning, wet roads after many dry days = slippery."

April 15th "Wet night, grey and slightly drizzly morning. After measuring just 5mm of rain in March, my gauge says 89mm so far for April."

The rain is much needed actually, of course we all prefer a sunny day ... but a rainy day can be fun too!

But then later on the 15th it was all blue skies again - make your mind up! Goes to show - the rain does not last all day - it's worth getting up and out even if things look a bit damp. Fortune favours the brave!

(above) Sun and blue skies on 15th April

But then on the 16th .. "Light rain falling again here at Karon Beach. It's like Glaswegian weather only 25 degrees warmer :)"

And the sea was a bit rough, looked unpleasant down at the beach. Time for a massage, a cold beer, a trip to the movies maybe!

Got rather rough and wild in the afternoon and night of the 16th, several dive trips cancelled due to the weather, did not leave port on the 16th evening or 17th morning. One dive boat that was already at the Similan Islands took on water and sank - all the divers and staff got off safely thankfully. I Tweeted on the 16th - "Often there's a short spell of wet weather in March or April before the actual low season.. I reckon will be all sun again soon." - this is quite true, seems to happen every year, a little false start to low season gets everyone worried and then the sun returns. I measured 49mm of rain at my house on the night of the 16th!

The 17th was grey and quite windy, another day for avoiding the beach. Someone on Twitter took my advice and headed out anyway - and later Tweeted "ended up touring Rawai and Nai harn area, very pleasant afternoon! and no rain" - you see!!

April 18th "A much nicer sunnier day in Phuket, though I did have some light rain at my house about 9am. Sun shining now at Karon beach :)"

As predicted ... weather got better after a day or two. And I am now ON HOLIDAY! for a few weeks. My parents arrived from England last night, it's 9:30am and nobody else in the house has woken up yet, ha ha! And the weather ..... I'll just dash outside and take a photo and put it on Instagram - do follow me on Instagram at instagram.com/phuketblog!

Here we go .... today's weather, 19th April ...

Cheers from Phuket!

Hot and Dry in Phuket

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie Monk in Phuket) — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 15:34:00 +0000

Finally, an update! Actually, the last 4 weeks of Phuket weather can be summed up in 3 words ...

HOT AND DRY

I decided in 2013 that the weather blog did not need regular updates since social media seems to be better for updating the weather in Phuket ... you can follow me on Twitter where the weather gets a daily mention, and there's also the Jamie's Phuket Facebook Page which also gets updated just about every day with photos or news or blog updates. And I joined Instagram last month - please do follow at instagram.com/phuketblog - photos almost daily which may also hint at the weather.

On this weather blog there's a great Live Phuket Webcam at Karon Beach or there are plenty of other weather links on the left side of this page for forecasts, satellite images, weather radar and more. All I can do on this blog is say what the weather has been like recently. Don't ask me for forecasts .. I am not a meteorologist and even if I were, it's not possible to say exactly what the weather will be like on May 7th or July 28th. I can be pretty dam sure though, that the weather in Phuket for the next couple of weeks will be, yes ...

HOT AND DRY

Some weather related Tweets from the last few weeks. Please do follow me on Twitter!

12th March : #Phuket #weather now ... Hot and sunny at #Karon ... photo
13th March : Another beautiful Kata Beach sunset this evening :)

(above) Kata Beach, 13th March 2013

14th March : It's a bloody hot day today in Phuket

16th March I had a day off ... wandered around in Phuket Town taking photos at the Market, and at the Shrine of Serene Light (below).

17th March : Weather in Phuket is HOT, HOT, HOT! Not had any rain for weeks
18th March : Phuket weather today : VERY HOT.
20th March : It's hot and sunny again in Phuket.
22nd March : Good morning from a hot and sunny Phuket
24th March : Roasting hot in Phuket today

A pattern is developing - I say again .. it's been HOT AND DRY!

25th March : roasting hot afternoon in Phuket
28th March : After a slightly cooler, cloudy start, Phuket is roasting once again!

29th March ...

(above) Sunset on March 29th, Cape Panwa, Phuket

30th March : Another hot hot morning - photo

31st March ...

(above) at Karon Beach, 31st March 2013

Oh, welcome to April .... The last couple of photos I uploaded to Instagram - please do follow, as almost daily photos will be added showing the weather, food and more.

1st April : #Phuket weather today a little cloudy and not quite so baking hot
2nd April : HOT HOT and HOT

And today was hot too!

Oh, here's something worth a look, and I'll make a blog post out of it soon - in the last 2 weeks I have decided to make an effort to get a bit fitter. It's been over 20 years since I happily rode a bike around the Pyrenees and raced every weekend over the 400 meter hurdles! I have been doing 1 hour fast walks around the Bang Wad reservoir not far from our house in Phuket. It's about 6.5km around the reservoir and in the early morning it's a beautiful place... some photos here : Bang Wad Reservoir

Recent posts on Jamie's Phuket Blog ::

• Around Phuket Island by Speedboat
• Phuket Town Market
• Shrine of the Serene Light
• Koh Rang Yai Island

And if you need a hotel booking, look first at Agoda. It's what I use.

Weather looks set to continue hot and dry. Last month (March) I measured a total of 5mm of rain. Driest March ever? And it's going to get hotter in April as we head towards the Songkran festival on April 13th. I am hoping for some rain soon, this is a hot year. More updates soon!

Phuket in March 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie Monk in Phuket) — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 14:50:00 +0000

Let's start with the news that finally after dithering for several years I bought an iPhone. Yeh, who cares? They are as common as muck, right? But could be the start of something new for the Phuket weather blog. I decided in 2013 that the weather blog did not need regular updates ... you can follow me on Twitter where the weather gets a daily mention, and there's also the Jamie's Phuket Facebook Page which also gets updated just about every day with photos or news or blog updates.

On this weather blog there's a great Live Phuket Webcam at Karon Beach or there are plenty of other weather links on the left side of this page.

Now, with the iPhone there are several cool things that might lead to a daily weather blog update.

Number 1. Instagram - apparently has 100 million users and now I am one of them.

Please follow me on Instagram at instagram.com/phuketblog. It's a new toy for me right now, but I like the live aspect of it - here's the weather NOW! One of the first photos I took was on March 6th - sunset at Karon Beach.

That photo pretty much sums up the weather recently! There were a couple of slightly wet days on February 24th - 25th, and a couple of downpours in the evenings towards the end of February too, but now it really is the hot season. From Twitter I can (using the search) find that I last used the word "rain" on February 25th and last used the word "wet" on February 28th :) It was a bit unusual to get rain in February, but it was not that bad. A selection of Twitter updates from the last week ...

March 1st : A gorgeous sunny day in Phuket!

March 2nd : This morning's weather : Blue skies over Phuket, just as it should be.

And this was the sunset on March 2nd. Nice.

March 3rd : Another beautiful sunny day in Phuket

March 4th - let me just say first - happy birthday to me. That was the day I bought the iPhone :) And on Twitter : Another perfect sunny morning here in Phuket.

March 5th : It's going to be another hot, hot day in Phuket.

March 6th : It's another hot, blue sky day in Phuket and quite breezy too. (Plus that sunset photo on Instagram :))

March 7th : It's going to be nice again + THIS photo on Instagram

March 8th : Morning weather report - hot and sunny at Karon Beach ...

And this photo courtesy of the iPhone app called Instaweatherpro :

That's the Chinese shrine outside Sunrise Divers at Karon beach.

This Instaweatherpro app might turn out to be very useful. Although I am not convinced of it's accuracy. I tried using it yesterday with a clear blue sky overhead and it said "mostly cloudy". I think maybe a photo without robot generated info is better!

March 9th - what a day! Weather was a bit hazy, but hot and sunny. I went along on a speedboat trip doing a complete circuit of Phuket Island, which is over 100km. This was an experimental trip arranged by my friends at Easy Day Thailand - we started at Chalong Bay after midday and got back before dark including a stop at Rang Yai island :

And a lunch break at Thanoon Seafood next to the Sarasin Bridge, and snorkeling at Koh Waew off Bang Tao Beach.

I was "live blogging" photos all afternoon on Facebook and Instagram. This was the view at lunchtime :

And the (nearly) sunset at Koh Waew ...

The hot season is here. Yesterday on the boat would have been really hot, but there was a bit of wind blowing. When the wind stops, then Phuket is hot! And that starts right about now.

So ... I will try to figure the best way to update the weather with a photo from the iPhone, maybe daily, maybe a few times per week, but at the same time .. technology has moved on! For the latest Phuket weather news, please do check the blog, and please do follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Goodnight from Phuket. March 10th, nearly 10pm and still rather hot outside!

Happy New Year Again

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie Monk in Phuket) — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 14:50:00 +0000

As I said in the last couple of updates, in 2013 I will be concentrating much more Jamie's Phuket Blog, which has already had 6 new posts this year. With the weather blog, there's only so much I can say - especially in high season when I could update most days with "hot" or "real hot" or "hot and a bit windy".

As an alternative, for Phuket weather news, please do follow me on Twitter where I tend to mention the weather most days along with Phuket news, blog updates, and more.

And if you are a Facebook user, please do "like" my Jamie's Phuket Facebook Page and visit as often as you like, again it gets updated just about every day with recent photos or Phuket news.

You can always check the current Phuket weather by looking at the very good Live Phuket Webcam at Karon Beach or use the other weather links on the left of this page.

If you need Phuket hotel reservations or information - I suggest looking at Agoda before anything else.

Recent posts on Jamie's Phuket Blog :

• Phuket Zoo - Should you visit?
• Phuket Markets
• Naowarat Restaurant in Phuket Town

Phuket Weather - Quick Update 11th January 2013

It's hot, real hot. Well, hot and a bit windy. Not seen any rain for the last couple of weeks, which is normal for February - on average the driest month in Phuket.

For us, it's a time of year when we don't do much. Kids are at school, they also do extra activities at the weekend like music and Taekwondo, and I am busy at Sunrise Divers, normally working 6 days per week. We've been doing work around the house at weekends for a few weeks too. In another 5 weeks it'll be end of school term and holiday time!

On February 2nd we were at Bang Rong Floating Restaurant for lunch, a place that's been a favourite for many years.

(above) View from my chair at Bang Rong

(above) At Bang Rong, on the NE coast of Phuket

And in the evening we ate at the aforementioned Naowarat Restaurant in Phuket Town, with a little walk around town first ...

This last weekend was Chinese New Year. On Saturday 9th we made offerings and prayers at home.

And in the afternoon took a little drive, as we do sometimes, with no particular direction in mind. I remembered seeing a small road on the northeast coast to an area called Laem Sai. So we went exploring. I realised that I had been here once before, maybe 10 years ago. A very quiet corner of Phuket....

In Phuket Town last night there were Chinese New Year celebrations, a stage show featuring Chinese acrobats and dancers... also on this week is the Chalong Temple Fair (from now until the 19th). And from 15th - 17th there's the Old Phuket Festival, centered around Thalang Road in the old part of Phuket Town. See you there!

January in Phuket - Mostly Harmless

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie Monk in Phuket) — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 01:55:00 +0000

As mentioned in the last update, in 2013 I will be sticking to updating Jamie's Phuket Blog, which has already had 4 new posts this month, there just does not seem to be time to update 2 blogs regularly, plus with the weather blog, there's only so much I can say.

As an alternative, for Phuket weather updates, please do follow me on Twitter where I tend to mention the weather most days.

And please do "Like" the Jamie's Phuket Facebook Page and visit as often as you like, again it gets updated just about every day with photos or Phuket news.

You can always check the current Phuket weather by looking at the very good Live Phuket Webcam at Karon Beach or use the other weather links on the left of this page.

Oh, and if you need Phuket hotel booking or information - I suggest looking at Agoda.

Phuket Weather - Quick Update 25th January 2013

January - on average one of the driest months in Phuket and it has been hot and sunny almost every day, a few days with some strong breezes, a couple of quick showers of rain here and there, but mostly hot, dry and blue skies everywhere.

This photo was taken January 12th ...

And this was January 18th ...

The good weather meant we could do some work at our house. The area in front of the house had become a mix of grass, plants and bricks, rather a mess, so we had builders in for about 4 days to flatten and tile the whole area. Cat approves.

The last 2 days have been less sunny - Wednesday 23rd was kind of grey all day, and the night was cool and breezy. Cool in Phuket terms means about 25C. Yesterday also grey, but got hot and sunny in the afternoon and then last night around 11pm we had a big, big thunderstorm, my rain gauge measured about 50mm of rain. Our power went off for several hours, but it was cool and breezy enough to sleep with the windows open. We don't get many power outages where we live. This morning (Friday 25th) it's all sunny again with blue skies all around and the air is fresh and clean.

Welcome to 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie Monk in Phuket) — Sun, 06 Jan 2013 09:28:00 +0000

Yes, the world is still here, and Phuket is still here, and although we're getting "odd" weather all the time, all over the world, I wouldn't worry too much about things. Make the best of 2013. Hope everyone has a good year. As I said in the previous post on this blog, I'm not planning to update too often from now on. The weather will always be there!

In 2013 I will concentrate more on my main Jamie's Phuket Blog, just newly updated yesterday with a review of a restaurant we visited on New Year's Day.

Please also do follow me on Twitter where I tend to mention the weather most days.

And please do "Like" the Jamie's Phuket Facebook Page and visit as often as you like, again it gets updated just about every day.

You can always check the current Phuket weather by looking at the Live Phuket Webcam at Karon Beach or use the other weather links on the left of the page.

Oh, and if you need Phuket hotel booking or information - I suggest Agoda.

Weather Update January 6th 2013

It's really nice at the moment, though we had a few odd windy wetter days around the turn of the new year. Here's a sunset photo from yesterday ...

And a photo from January 1st. Cheers!

This was taken at the new Dairy Hut Seafood restaurant in Phang Nga. That was a nice day out - we like to drive a bit off the island, Phang Nga province is nearby and has some great scenery. Just missed a sunset over the sea on that day, this was the sunset as seen from the car heading back to Phuket ...

Happy New Year from Phuket!

December 17th 2012 Phuket Weather

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie Monk in Phuket) — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 14:26:00 +0000

We're certainly into high season now, indeed it's only 8 days until Christmas, not that you'd really notice. I don't feel "Christmasy" and there's hardly a sign of the festive season here though I guess shops and hotels might have some decorations and the kids get a 2 week school holiday starting Wednesday, and yeh we'll put up our much used plastic tree, maybe tomorrow evening. The weather? It's OK, thanks. Mostly hot, a bit of rain here and there, not much wind. With high season in full swing, I'm kind of tired and might stop updating this blog for a while. The main Jamie's Phuket Blog is still running of course and for bite sized updates on many things including the weather please do follow me on Twitter. Twitter is easy to update in single sentences, and I try to mention the weather every day. And I'll be happy to see you "Like" the Jamie's Phuket Facebook Page too!

To see what the weather is like right now, try the Live Phuket Webcam at Karon Beach or the webcams at Patong or Surin beaches - see links on the left side of the page. Not sure what the weather is like? Do ask a question by leaving a comment on this page or on Twitter or Facebook.

And if you need Phuket hotel booking or information - try Agoda.

If there's any bizarre weather related news, I'll report it here. Thinking of maybe making this blog more newsy in the future, not just weather. For now, Merry Christmas, or if you are American "happy holidays" and please America, try to come up with some form of gun control.

Welcome to December 2012!

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie Monk in Phuket) — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 14:36:00 +0000

First of all, today is December 5th, 85th birthday of King Bhumibol.

Happy birthday to you, sir!

And now the weather report from Phuket for the last week. Well, I don't seem to recall the details. I know there was some rain and some sun. My rain gauge seems to have packed in / given up the ghost, and I keep forgetting to check it anyway what with working 6 days a week and having a family. We're into high season, it's December, but the weather doesn't seem much different to October or November. A bit of this, a bit of that, mostly nice. Yeh, nobody wants to see rain on holiday, but if it does rain here, make the best of it! I'll have to consult my Twitter feed to see what I wrote about weather over the last week.

28th November : "Wet and grey in Phuket. My rain gauge measured 61mm of rain in the last 24 hours"

Yes that night of the 27th was very wet, but later the same day "Weather getting a bit nicer", but then later still "A light rain now falling at Karon Beach, rain please go away, it's Loy Krathong". Yes! 28th November was Loy Krathong, I did not take any pictures, we went to float our Krathongs at The Beach Bar at Cape Panwa, enjoyed the evening, floated our Krathongs for luck, though the luck lasted as far as our daughter getting bitten by a dog. As a precaution we went to hospital that night to get her a rabies shot. I am now even more of a dog non-lover, certainly don't want to see that dog again. The owner lives in that area and should not bring it to a restaurant again.

29th November : "Beautiful fresh sunny morning here in Phuket, the recent rainy days seem to have ended"

30th November : "Looks like another sunny day coming up in Phuket. Rained yesterday evening for about 20 minutes at our house. Air is clear and fresh"

For (almost) daily comments on the Phuket weather, do Follow me on Twitter!

20 minutes later than the previous comment on 30th November : "just looked at the Karon Beach webcam, and it's lashing down with rain!"

I was still at home in Kathu (just outside Phuket Town) when I Tweeted about the rain in Karon. Happy to say the the Karon Beach Webcam is now back online at the Marina Phuket Resort after a summer of renovations. Certainly the best webcam in Phuket, and I've just added it to Jamie's Phuket also (see : Karon Beach Phuket Webcam).

Saturday 1st December we had a very nice lunch at Bang Mud floating restaurant off the east coast of Phuket. I'll be blogging about it soon on Jamie's Phuket. You get there by longtail boat ...

Some of our lunch ...

On the night of the 1st, I heard there was a big rainstorm in the Rawai area of Phuket, but I had no rain at home. Then the morning of December 2nd :

"Rain, rain, rain this morning ... rained on me all the way (20km) from home to work, still raining, welcome to December!"

Afternoon of the 2nd was sunny, so was the 3rd and on the 4th :

"Looking like another perfect sunny morning in Phuket :)"

and

"Hot, hot afternoon in Phuket!"

And here we are, December 5th already, finally a bit of northeast wind is blowing to make the weather better, it blows the rain away, cools the air slightly. Now it's high season! Been very busy at the dive shop, will try to get a sunset photo tomorrow if I can squeeze out of the office a few minutes early.

Dry Season or Wet Season?

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie Monk in Phuket) — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 01:02:00 +0000

Every year I see visitors to Phuket who are surprised that there's rain falling in high season. Surely November is the dry season? Why is it raining? WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO? Firstly, don't panic, especially not with rain like we're having this week. It's mostly light rain, with some heavy, short showers thrown in, but the sea is calm, there's no wind, as William Wallace said in Braveheart "It's good Scottish weather, the rain is falling straight down". But in Phuket, the rain is warm, the air is warm and really all you need is a small umbrella to get out and enjoy life. Sure you can't sunbathe, but guess what? There's more to Phuket than beaches! My Jamie's Phuket blog was started back in 2006 to show the many sides of Phuket. Rainy day? Please don't sit in your hotel and stare at the rain! Go and do something interesting like visit a museum (Phuket has several good ones), take a little walk (with umbrella) in old Phuket Town, go for a massage, visit the aquarium, go eat some seafood, visit a temple, hey even a tour in Phang Nga Bay will be fine in this weather since the sea is calm, just you might get a little wet, but don't worry, you won't melt.

(above) view from Rang Hill, Phuket Town on Saturday 24th November looking towards the western hills and the Big Buddha. See? Rainy day, great view! Take a drive, get out and explore... wasn't raining on us at Rang Hill.

And then later, at Cape Panwa, we sat in the sun watching clouds over the water ...

Again, we did not get wet, dodged the rain, though it must have been pretty heavy "over there" ...

Actually, if you check the Phuket rain monthly averages, you can see that November is on average the wettest of the high season months (November - April). So no great surprise to get some rain now. The first half of November was very dry and hot, now we get some life-giving rain :)

November Heat

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie Monk in Phuket) — Sun, 18 Nov 2012 14:34:00 +0000

I am sure I say this every year, but the weather is odd. Strange. Not the same as it used to be. It's November but the last few days have felt like the hottest of the year, like it normally feels like in April. Just a couple of inches of rain in the last 10 days, and that has fallen in quick showers. After one of these hot days, a 30 minute thundershower is most welcome. In summary, the last 10 days since the last weather blog update has been HOT and mostly very sunny. Ignore any forecasts that say "rain, rain, rain". Sure you might get some rain, this is a tropical environment, but it'll still be hot!

A few recent photos ....

Saturday 10th November, one of my favourite parts of Phuket - the west side of Cape Panwa, with great views across Chalong Bay. There's a viewpoint on the hill here (Khao Kad Viewpoint) and one of our favourite hangouts - The Beach Bar, right on the beach.

(above) Beach at Cape Panwa

Last week I was on "late shift" at Sunrise Divers, with a 10am start and some time for useful activity in the morning. Had a couple of morning walks at Bang Wad Reservoir and a walk in Phuket Town. Along Thalang Road in the heart of the old town there are lots of old businesses, many run by Chinese-Thai families and many that have been there since the turn of the 20th century. Lots of history here. Below a slideshow of photos taken on 13th November ...

But mostly it's been work, work work! Until Friday evening when our kids played live music in Queen Sirikit park in Phuket Town, then wolfed down large plates of spaghetti at Route 68 (while Dad enjoyed a couple of cold beers). And then a day off on Saturday, when perhaps unsurprisingly we ended up back at The Beach Bar.

(above) Pee - owner of The Beach Bar

(above) At The Beach Bar, 17th November.

Good times in Phuket! I do like hot weather, though when you hear locals complaining about the heat, then you know it's a bit too hot. November should be a bit cooler, with a northeast breeze which is not really blowing yet.

Coming to Phuket - got a young family? I just did a new post on Jamie's Phuket, check out the Top 10 Family Hotels in Phuket.

If you're heading to Phuket soon .. looks like sun*.

*no guarantee.

November - High Season Starts Now!

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie Monk in Phuket) — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 13:15:00 +0000

Well, the weather this last week is no different to much of October. Although November 1st is officially the start of high season, it's not like the weather changes dramatically, and yet .. in October people are amazed to see sun, and in November, a 30 minute rain shower is greeted in horror.. "I thought it was high season!" is the cry. But despite the weather being the same as last week, there has been a big change at the dive shop. The Similan Islands officially open on November 1st and it's been like a dam opening with emails coming in like a flood. Welcome to high season!

Weather summary this week - mostly sunny, some rain. The end. Not much rain, just a few heavy showers really although Sunday (4th November) was mostly grey and wet .. but not windy. A bit of rain would not stop you having fun, right? By the way, I tend to mention the weather (almost) daily on Twitter, so do follow me for regular weather updates and Phuket news and some more random thoughts.

So, in high season it's mostly about work, just a day off at the weekend. Our weekends tend to be quite busy, the kids do things like music class and taekwondo and we try to get out and about exploring, some days further afield than others. On Saturday this week (3rd November) I just got a feeling to have lunch at Bang Rong, on the northeast coast of Phuket. There's a floating restaurant there in the mangroves that we've been going to for years. And again this Saturday it did not disappoint.

(above) at Bang Rong, Phuket.

And after a very tasty lunch (and get this ... garlic squid, 3 plates of garlic chicken, spicy salad with smoked shrimp, fried rice, steamed rice .. 350 Baht) ... after lunch I dragged the family to Bang Pae Waterfall for a walk in the jungle. Was a hot sweaty afternoon, but in the jungle felt cooler.

And still time later in the afternoon for sunset, a beer and dinner at The Beach Bar at Cape Panwa. Another of our favourite quiet places...

(above) Sunset beer on Saturday

You might notice that my photos tend to be of quiet, uncrowded places. Yeh, this is Phuket too! Phuket has it's crowds and busy beaches. But that's not my Phuket :)

High Season!

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie Monk in Phuket) — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 14:36:00 +0000

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.

High Season is (almost) here

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie Monk in Phuket) — Sun, 21 Oct 2012 14:50:00 +0000

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 :)

Blue Skies in October

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie Monk in Phuket) — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 10:05:00 +0000

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!

Phuket Weather Update October 6th 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie Monk in Phuket) — Sat, 06 Oct 2012 01:04:00 +0000

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 and Facebook - see you there!

What the low season in Phuket should be like

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie Monk in Phuket) — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 02:12:00 +0000

Finally, we have what I would call "normal" low season weather here in Phuket. A bit of sun, a bit of rain, a bit of wind, some days better than others. Somehow I have not updated here for 10 days, though if anyone really wants to know what the weather is like right now, do Follow me on Twitter or have a look at the Surin Beach Webcam. The other webcams that are linked to on the weather blog are not running at the moment. The Patong webcam needs a new camera and the Karon webcam is supposed to be back next month when the Marina resort where it's located completes it's building work.

Not been the most exciting last 10 days. Heads down and work. But I am starting a 2 week holiday today! The kids finished their school term on Wednesday (2 days ago) after their end of term tests which I made them do some studying for at the weekend instead of going out too much. This coming weekend, it's my turn to pray for sun as we are booked for 2 days at Racha Yai Island, which hopefully will look something like this : (photo taken in 2011)

Today (Friday) started grey and a bit damp at 7am (yeh, on holiday but still wake up early) but the blue sky is appearing and I would like to take the family for a nice lunch somewhere. On low season days like this you just hope for the best, make the best of what weather you get. Looks OK, might be some rain around, but days like this are fine for getting out and about, like most low season days.

In the last 10 days we've had about 150mm of rain, only a couple of days with no rain, some windy days which actually made some waves for last weekend's surfing contest at Patong beach. Here's a selection of my Tweets from this last week which show the weather at this time of year very clearly...

September 12th "Today so far : sunny, heavy rain, cloudy, sunny, dark clouds gathering, heavy rain, cloudy, sunny, cloudy again = proper low season weather"

September 13th "It's a "wet 'n' wild" day so far in Phuket. Not really heavy rain, but blanket grey skies, quite windy and lots of showers"

By the way, certainly no floods here. There are again, like last year, some floods in Central/North Thailand in a few areas and some people are worried there might be some flooding in Bangkok again, but not in Phuket.

On the 13th in the evening we tried a new cafe in Phuket Town called "Since 1892" on Thalang Road, which we'll visit again so I can take photos and blog it!

September 14th "Sun is out .. did not expect that today, thought it would be a wet one all day"

September 15th "Wet and windy morning again. Hope it clears up, I am hoping to have a sunny afternoon at Surin beach"

Did visit Surin beach to meet up with Stuart who runs the excellent Travelfish travel guide to SE Asia. I have not been to Surin for ages (years?). It was very quiet with quite a few businesses closed up for low season. We took a walk along the beach and had a few beers in a bar with 2 customers and 8 staff! Weather was OK, almost had a sunset!

These guys had recovered some old rope from the sea and were hauling it along the beach, must have weighed a ton being all saturated with seawater ...

Dark clouds approached later, and the wind whipped up for a few minutes driving everyone indoors but there was no heavy rain at Surin that evening, looked like the heavy rain hit the coast a bit further south at Kamala or Patong beaches.

This last few days has been all work and no play. Work for me (aside from an evening in Phuket Town having a few beers) and study for the kids. Weather has been REAL low season, changing several times per day. Starting today we can relax. 9am now and the sun is coming out. I woke early so have already done work emails and the weather blog and the whole day is ahead of us. Holidays!

A little rain, a lot of sun. That's low season in Phuket!

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie Monk in Phuket) — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 12:05:00 +0000

I think the weather is now "normal" again. This has been an odd low season with very long hot periods and also long wet spells. You'd normally expect the weather to change every few days. Instead we had weeks of sunny weather in June, July and August, and also a very wet second half of August .. The last update on 4th September was all about sun again, as we had another week of sunny days from 29th August - 4th September. As I wrote the blog in the evening of the 4th, I saw dark clouds gathering and figured the rain would come, and it did. We had a very wet night, and I had to guess the rainfall as my gauge died. Probably more than 60mm overnight, followed by a grey and wet 5th September, with the Meteorological Department issuing a weather warning. Such warnings normally come a day after the bad weather :)

5th September - wet, in the night especially, but then the 6th was OK, a bit grey but no major rain. And then .. 3 hot sunny days on 7th, 8th and 9th. See - the 3 day pattern is back! And last night it rained, and today (11th) has been kind of grey, with patches of sun, and I saw a rainbow this morning. Low season should be more like this, a little bit random ... Probably going to rain tonight too.

Saturday (my day off) was HOT, and along with doing such things as the kids music class and my son's Taekwondo class, we had lunch at Laem Hin Seafood which has long been a favourite place. On a hot day, my spicy seafood salad was perfectly complemented by draught Singha beer with ice :)

Highlight of the week - the Por Tor Festival. Not well known and did not surprise me to see no other foreign faces at the shrine on Saturday evening. Went into Phuket Town with the whole family (me, my wife, 2 kids, 2 brothers-in-law and an uncle-in-law!) and very much enjoyed checking out the bakeries where they make huge red turtle cakes which are sold as offerings, left in the temple for the hungry ghosts of ancestors who visit the non-spirit world during this time.

I wrote about the festival last year - see Por Tor Festival 2011, and will probably blog this year's festival too. Inside the Por Tor Kong shrine it was crowded and very very smoky - so much incense burning!

My daughter and I went inside to say prayers ...

And then we headed to the Route 68 bar for a drink and to play pool. We're back into the normal work/school week now, but the kids school term ends in a couple of weeks and we'll take a little holiday, which I am looking forward to before the high season starts. When it's time for our holiday, it's my turn to pray for sunny skies .. when I'm working it doesn't matter too much for me, only for people on holiday :)

Hot and Sunny Again (with a chance of thunder)

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie Monk in Phuket) — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 10:26:00 +0000

As I updated the Phuket weather blog last Wednesday (29th August) we were just coming to the end of another wet spell. Very wet. August was bizarre. No rain at all for the first 15 days, and then 600mm in the next 2 weeks! The wet days stopped suddenly on the 29th and we've not had any rain since then. The 29th started bright and sunny. My cat was very happy to be able to laze in the morning sun. I was actually at home with .. I don't know what kind of sickness, and I still have it .. a sore throat that won't go away no matter how much ~~beer~~ tea with honey I drink. So on that lovely sunny day, the first for ages, I was stuck at home. But Kaye posted a very nice sunset photo at Surin Beach on Twitter (follow her @KayeZumbaModel) :

August 30th - I drove the 20km to work, but after about half an hour after opening, the electricity went off and people around our shop confirmed that it would be off all day for essential work. So .. home again to answer emails. In the evening, we were in Phuket Town, at Sapan Hin park where we got some snacks and drinks. The moon was rising to the east. Lovely evening.

And a couple of guys were flying around on motorised parachutes.

Sapan Hin is a nice place in the early evening, very popular with locals.

Friday August 31st was another sunny day, and so was Saturday 1st September. I had a quick walk in Phuket Town taking photos on small side streets...

And then in the evening we were back at Sapan Hin with friends. There was a little local fair going on, with a stage set up, a beer tent, lots of food available... and the entertainment included our kids - son and friends below. Our daughter sang 'Price Tag' later too. A few jugs of draught beer Chang went down very well.

As I write this in the evening 4th September, dark clouds are gathering, so we might get a little thunderstorm soon, would be the first rain on our house since 28th August. Some more dry evenings would be nice. The Por Tor Festival is now on, continues until next weekend. I was in Phuket Town again on Sunday evening to see what was happening at the main market. Quite a lot!

I want to go again later this week. It's a very interesting little festival.

Right, must be off now... the son is heading to his Taekwondo lesson ....

Rain, drizzle, downpour, cats and dogs ...

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie Monk in Phuket) — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 03:25:00 +0000

Well, after having no rain at all for the first 15 days in August, the last 2 weeks has made up for it! The last update on the Phuket weather blog was August 22nd, which was itself quite a nice sunny day, only with wet roads and minor floods (see that last update for some photos) caused by 200mm of rain the night before! Nothing serious, and the "floods" mostly gone by the afternoon. The word "flood" is easily misused and misinterpreted, some local news reports were typically over sensational. I actually saw no flooded roads between my house (Kathu, near Phuket Town) and Karon Beach, 20km away. Phuket Town got wet, but local people there told us the water was gone by mid afternoon, so headlines like "Phuket floods damage roads, pull down power poles" are too much. Maybe 1 or 2 small sections of road in the whole island damaged and 2 power poles fell down, but a headline makes it sound much worse. Truth : Heavy rain and minor flooding with minor damage to roads and property in some areas. Life not affected in any way. Off my soapbox, I know news has to sell itself.

Anyway, the last 6 days have been pretty wet, with patches of sun. August 23rd started sunny, or at least not too cloudy. I Tweeted "Phuket weather right now - light grey with the sun trying to make an appearance.", but later on the 23rd (last Thursday) the rain came in again, nothing much, 29mm falling during the afternoon and night. We dodged the raindrops in Phuket Town and went for a coffee at the Kopitiam cafe on Thalang Road in the old town.

Friday 24th was mostly grey, not wet .. again with rain falling in the night. Saturday started nice and sunny, our kids went to (rock) music lessons and we drove up Rang Hill for some fresh air. Kids wanted to watch a movie at the cinema, and we saw that 'Brave' would be showing at the multiplex cinema at the Central Festival mall. Before that I had time for a quick dash into Phuket Town. I wanted to get some photos of the Thavorn hotel which opened in 1961 and was Phuket's first 5 star hotel. It's not 5 star now, you can get a room for as low as 600 Baht, but downstairs the lobby still looks quite grand, and they have a kind of museum, a room full of old relics. I'll blog about it sometime soon.

Brave was good and the whole family wiped away a tear. For movie schedules, check here. Useful for a rainy day. Actually when we went into the cinema, it was still sunny. When we left it was raining cats and dogs. Didn't rain all night, but raining hard when we got home. At which point someone had to sacrifice their dryness to go open the gate and you start to think that an electronic gate would be very cool.

Sunday 26th - grey with patches of wet. I did not go out taking photos of the rain and grey skies, by Sunday I was feeling a bit sh*tty with a red eye, sore throat and swollen glands. I went to work on Monday but wished I hadn't! Aside from not feeling too great, it was a really wet and windy day, one of the crappiest of the year! Total rain for Monday (measured 7am Monday - 7am Tuesday) was 112mm. Boats should not really be out in that weather - a speedboat sank between Phuket and Phi Phi, thankfully with no casualties - see news here.

It's Wednesday morning now, and sunny. I was at home yesterday and still at home today, not feeling too healthy still with swollen neck and bad cough. Need another cup of tea and probably some antibiotics too. Poor me!

August has been a game of 2 halves. 15 dry days, and since the 16th we've had 600mm of rain according to my rain gauge. Wettest August on my records, going back to 1998. Over half of that total was on just 2 days though, so it's not like we've had constant rain. Saturday was mostly nice for example. I think we'll get another spell of good weather now. Today is turning out nice. But I don't suppose I'll leave the house, gotta get better!

Wet, Wetter, Wettest

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie Monk in Phuket) — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 14:42:00 +0000

A quick summary of recent weather.... Between 10th July and 15th August 2012, I recorded a total of 6mm of rainfall at our house (in Kathu, a few km from Phuket Town). Basically for about 6 weeks we had hot, hot weather. Not at all usual for the low season, "rainy season" or whatever you wish to call this time of year. If you were here during that 6 weeks, well played! Cheap hotel rates (see Agoda for hotels) and weather better than high season! It couldn't last forever of course, some rain had to fall...

The last update on the Phuket weather blog was 15th August. Well on the 16th it was cloudy and there was some rain in the night, hardly any on my house, but certainly some in Patong, which may have contributed (by causing an electrical short) to a tragic early morning (after closing time) fire at the Tiger Disco, in which 4 people died.

Then it started getting wetter ... night of the 17th I got the first real rain on my house for 6 weeks, with 29mm being measured by my faithful rain gauge. The morning of the 18th was rather grey, looked like more rain coming, but things brightened, which was good, as I wanted to get out and take photos in Phuket Town. I wandered up Yaowarat Road, and found several big old houses ...

And then had lunch at Abduls Roti Shop on Thalang Road.

The rain fell again (not much) on Saturday night, enough to bring the frogs out, chanting their beautiful melodies outside the bedroom window. The changing weather may have helped my son to get a bit of a fever on Saturday.. and now this week I've got a bit of a cold too. On Sunday we did not do much, though it was a pretty sunny day I did not want to take fever boy out. Late breakfast in the food court at the Central Festival mall, and we did take a drive later in the afternoon, I'd seen a hill on Google Earth, just north of the airport. On top is this ...

It's the Phuket weather radar! I've never been up this hill before. Views were OK, though the hill is covered in trees. Would need to climb up the radar tower to get a better view (I didn't).

Monday 20th was largely sunny, but then overnight there was a big downpour. I measured 86mm, most of which fell overnight and surely helped a bus to flip over on the main road to the airport in the wee hours. It was quite a wet day at Karon Beach too, though at my house in Kathu it had been quite dry. Rain can be very localised.

OK, saving the best for last! Well, last night was wet. Really wet. It rained all night. I was shocked by the reading on my rain gauge for the period from 7am 21st - 7am 22nd August, a total of 210mm of rain! That's more than I can remember in a single day** and I figured there would surely be some flooded roads somewhere. Surprised that my 20km drive to Karon Beach was flood-free, but I soon heard about wet roads in Phuket Town and Patong and some flight delays at the airport. Nothing real serious. I don't like to say "floods" as people tend to overreact. There was water on some roads, it slowed transport, made some houses and shops wet, but it never lasts long. Mostly all drained away during the day.

Photos below from The Phuket News. First one on Dibuk Road in Phuket Town this morning. My wife drove on that road at 5pm and there was no water. So it drains off fast, looks dramatic, but in reality, the locals just take it with a pinch of salt.

Local life just carries on as normal, this happens every year, nothing to worry about.. here's a motorbike taxi in Phuket Town...

And the same piece of road that had a sinkhole problem last year collapsed again on the edge of Patong Hill (the road leading over to Phuket Town and Kathu). Guess they'll fill it in with gravel again.

Hey, nothing too serious, and I think all gone now. In fact, today was mostly sunny, a nice warm day. Water drains off Phuket quickly into the sea. Let's see what happens the rest of this week ... Must be some more rain to come.

** Looking back through old rainfall data. October 9th 2004, over 300mm was recorded - not by me, but by the guy I got the rain gauge from. So yesterday/last night was not the wettest day I have ever seen. In 2004 I was doing some weather updates on our dive shop page, and if you look at the October 2004 summary, it says "Really wet day. Heavy rain and minor flooding in some areas. Where's my ark?".

Cheers and do follow me on Twitter for daily updates.

A very dry "rainy season" in Phuket

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie Monk in Phuket) — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 13:21:00 +0000

I am now hard pushed to recall exactly when we last had some proper rainfall. Although May was quite wet, and there was a very wet spell in early June and another week of rainy days in early July, since then - 2 words. Hot. Sunny. Every time I post an update on Twitter it says "hot and sunny". And I can see the green hills starting to look a little brown. This would not be a good time to visit a waterfall. There's not much water to be falling! However, if you have been in Phuket recently, or are coming (very) soon (if this weather continues) then your low season bargain trip has been a good one! Great weather for diving, for anything out on the water, for day trips, for lazing in the sun, for taking photos of blue skies...

(above) This was at Karon Beach in the morning, Monday 13th August. Despite the light winds and sunshine, you still have to be careful swimming at the beach. I've not seen any reports of drownings recently, but I could see that, where I was standing to take the photo, the water quickly got deep, and with the water draining rapidly back into the sea, you have to be careful of rip currents at this time of year. If you see bigger waves than those in the picture above, do be careful.

So really, for the last week - no weather to report. Only sunshine! This is supposed to be low season, rainy season, and I suppose if you were unlucky and had your holiday during one of the wet spells, you have a very different idea of Phuket weather than anyone who's been here in the last month. I like to tell people that the low season is not too bad really, but this is nuts! We do actually need some rain.

A holiday in Phuket during low season (May to October) can be a bit of a gamble, and the hotel prices certainly make coming to Phuket a good deal (for hotels in Phuket, have a look at Agoda or look at my recommended Phuket hotels). You might get lucky, you might not. I don't complain when the weather is like this, but as a resident, I'm quite happy with some rain too, so we don't have to worry about the possibility of water shortages later in the year.

Last weekend we had a couple of evenings in Phuket Town, my favourite part of Phuket (yes, I know the beaches are nice). We walked a bit in the old town. The picture below was taken on Soi Romanee, a narrow street which (according to local history) used to be full of "houses of ill repute". Now a rather pretty street with several cafes, a couple of small guesthouses and plenty of well looked after old buildings.

We had dinner at a place called Route 68 which is on Thalang Road, also in the old town. They had live music on the Saturday evening, just a guy and a guitar, nothing overpowering. This is the Phuket that we like. Here's Route 68 ...

The weather has continued "hot and sunny" into the week. The trouble with this weather is .. I wish I was on holiday in Phuket and not working :) Anyone who wants to dive, come to see me at Sunrise Divers.

Forecast : More hot and sunny weather, but a big thunderstorm would be quite welcome!

Hello August! And the heat continues ...

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie Monk in Phuket) — Tue, 07 Aug 2012 02:51:00 +0000

Well, this is getting silly! The weather is broken. This low season, anyone visiting Phuket has either been too hot or too wet. Last month we had over 300mm of rain in a very wet first 9 days. If you were in Phuket in the first week of July, you may well curse any silly blogger who says that the low season is quite nice :) And after that? Well, my rain gauge measured 6mm in the next 3 weeks. And now we're a week into August, and it's still hot. Have seen a few minor showers, that's all - like yesterday morning, a sudden shower which lasted about 2 minutes. Anyone who's been in Phuket the last few weeks has to be thinking "Wow! we got great weather in the low season!" - truth is that the low season is mostly OK. Anyone who gets a totally rained-out holiday is very unlucky. Main bonus in low season is the hotel rates - way down on high season.

I'm certainly not complaining about the good weather, although the heat does start to get tiresome. I like the low season weather because it's normally very mixed. In a "normal" low season, weather changes every few days. Rain is good, we need rain to cool off, to water the green island, to fill the reservoirs. Not enough rain and people start to talk about water shortages. A tourist coming for 7 days wants 7 days of sun. A local wants some rain sometimes! The nice weather this month has allowed us a couple of very nice days out, we visited Koh Yao Noi, the Gibbon Rehabilitation Center, Kathu Temple, and this last weekend there has been a street festival in Kathu village, just round the corner from our house. The weather was kind this year, and the streets have been full. On August 4th in the evening, there was a street parade...

The street fair continued for 3 evenings. Yesterday, I found a cure for the heat:

Must quickly mention the Olympics, very happy that I can watch everything live on Youtube, wish I could stay awake until 3am to watch some more of the athletics, but have been enjoying it all - cycling, horses, canoeing, rowing, even gymnastics. Makes me proud to be British, but at the same time, happy to be living in Phuket :)

HOT weather in Phuket!

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie Monk in Phuket) — Mon, 30 Jul 2012 13:17:00 +0000

The last few days have been HOT. I can't quantify that, sorry. I don't have a built in thermometer, but you can be sure that it's hot when a local says it's HOT! Hotter than normal, and several very calm days too, though as I write this on Monday evening July 30th the wind is picking up and I think the weather is about to turn wet again, about what you'd expect in wet season. The last update on July 25th also mentioned the heat, along with a couple of brief showers. There's been no rain that I've seen since the 25th, only heat. Sometimes hazy, sometimes with blue skies. And the Olympics started in London a couple of days ago where the weather has varied from blue skies to pouring rain. I am glad to find that I can watch live Olympic action on Youtube.

For (almost) daily updates on Phuket weather and news and random things, please do follow me on Twitter @JamieMonk. On the 26th, I ~~posted~~ Tweeted Weather right now in Phuket - Blue. Only Blue. I cannot see a cloud, and then on the 27th Well I tell ya, it's hot in Phuket today. And then on Saturday 28th we took a great day trip out to Koh Yao Noi island, similar to a trip we did last year. ~~I'll write about this trip too when I get round to it~~! Great day out, helped enormously by the very good weather. I should have worn a hat and put on some sun lotion, but .. I hardly ever wear hats or use sun lotion, just get a red face for a couple of days! Red forearms too from riding around on the moped. Koh Yao Noi is a beautiful place ....

• A beautiful day at Koh Yao Noi (on Jamie's Phuket Blog)

(above) East coast of Koh Yao Noi island

(above) Koh Yao Noi main street

(above) Gas station on Koh Yao Noi

The last 2 days have also been very hot, wind picking up a bit, and the forecast is predicting 20 - 25 knot winds in the coming days, which normally means some rain too. The forecast I like to look at is Windguru. Hard to predict the weather, and my answer to anyone considering traveling to Phuket in low season is "It'll probably be OK, you'll get some sun, some rain, or maybe no sun, or quite probably hardly any rain" - I like low season myself, like the variation in weather, although this year has been odd so far - much longer periods of hot weather than normal and long periods of wet weather too rather than the usual low season pattern of changing every few days.

Forecast - see you here!

Oh, and if you need a hotel - look at Agoda.com, recommended by me, easy to use website and guaranteed best rates, although they all say that!

Phuket Low Season - Clouds and Heat

noreply@blogger.com (Jamie Monk in Phuket) — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 14:11:00 +0000

Since the last update on July 18th, things have continued to be a mixture of sunny, hot, cloudy, occasional light rain. Right now there's a minor typhoon dispersing over Vietnam / Cambodia. But that's a long way from here. Today has been hot and sunny though I did measure 6mm of rain at our house last night during a brief heavy shower. A very localised shower - I was at a friends house just a few km away and we saw just a few drops of rain there. The days have been pretty hot this week. Don't ask me for a number in Celsius or Fahrenheit - but if a local says "it's hot!" that means it's hot, OK!

Looking back at my Twitter posts ... the 19th and 20th were perhaps not so great. 19th "This morning's weather .... grey. Shades of grey." and on the 20th "Some very light rain in the night, this morning - grey with a bit of white, and I can see 4 square inches of blue sky .. oh no it's gone."

The 21st was a hot sunny day, and in the evening we took a walk in the "Ket Ho" area of Kathu where they were holding a street fair (it was on 3 nights from Friday to Sunday). Lots of food stalls and dancing and music. There's a much bigger street fair in Kathu coming up soon from 4th - 6th August. A couple of photos from Saturday evening ...

It's been mostly hot and sunny since then, but a bit windy, with some fairly large waves out at sea. A customer from Sunrise Divers came to see me today - great diving he said, but he had to skip the last dive - had to say his prayers to the porcelain god.

Yesterday I took a day off work for our daughter's birthday, and she got a bonus present - school was closed all day due to work on electric lines in the area! Another hot sunny day. We visited a local temple (Wat Kathu) to say some prayers.

The heat looks set to continue, I hope! We're planning a nice trip this weekend. Been a good week to be in Phuket and also congratulations to Brad Wiggins, Chris Froome, Mark Cavendish and the rest of Team Sky at the Tour de France, which I have been watching every evening! It finished on Sunday, but that was OK, because on Monday I got a delivery from Amazon, an 8 box set of the complete That 70' Show - my wife and I have our viewing for the next 2 months with more than 200 episodes :)

Forecast : Great, and why not? Viva Phuket!