Hot season back for re-run in already sultry Bangkok

Right now in Bangkok it is 36 C that, when humidity is factored in, feels like 47!

That’s what meteorologists at the old Don Meuang airport were reporting around 4 pm.
 
I have never experienced a 47 degree humidex. That is until having just returned from a restaurant outing on Sukhumvit  soi 23 -- in the height of the day’s heat.

So, that’s 47! Wow! So that's why my cigarette spontaneously lit itself! It definitely feels hotter in the round-the-year oven that is the City of Angels.

Back home, newspapers would be filled with stories of, not just extreme weather, but just everyday weather, such as “it’s going to be a hot one this summer” or “get out yer long johns early -- this going to be a cold one”. Here, it’s hardly worth publishing: it’s either hot, hotter or hot and wet -- unless there’s a drought (bad for rice) or floods (bad for rice).

Yesterday, around 4 o’clock, it was 36 and felt like 45, according to the Weather Underground web site, which uses the  forecasts and current conditions reports from two airports and a third weather station.

Expat and Thai friends are exclaiming surprise at the recent heat. This is supposed to be the rainy season, which I have never experienced before. It’s my first rainy season in Thailand or anywhere else.

Well, the monsoon period seemed to have arrived months earlier (some surprising downpours at the end of February), then petered out (as hot season commenced for March, April and some of May), came back last month and now, looking at this weeks’ forecast, seems to be on hiatus again.

The rainy or monsoon season usually brings extremely high humidity but slightly lower temperatures. And it’s always a bit cooler after a rain, as evidenced last weekend after some evening and afternoon downpours.

As I write this, now around 7 pm local time, the temp has plunged to 43 humidex (33.9). Woohoo!

If you don’t believe it can get that hot, check out the hottie Thai university student fanning herself while waiting for the Ratchadapisek Road bus heading north in the top picture. In the middle picture,  motorcycle couriers always wear jackets, even in the 40-plus heat. In the picture below, uni students wait either for the delights of the third-class open-windowed city bus or maybe  for the slightly more expensive air-con city bus because they seem to be ignoring the a/c meter taxi.

Fans and air con are going full tilt everywhere. Last month my electricity bill soared to over 1600 baht ($50 Canadian), when the previous month of May it was only 600 baht (about $20). And I don’t use air con during the morning and most of the afternoon!

I have got used to using a fan. It’s quite adequate as for cooling, I think, as long as your body acclimatizes to tropical temperatures. Which doesn’t mean you’re immune to sweating! On the contrary, I’ve recently bought “wife beaters” for wearing under my dress and casual shirts. They’re quite effective for preventing those embarrassing wet spots across your chest and underarms, which most definitely mark you as a wimpy foreigner.

Comments

[Martyn]

1.

Rick that's one hot collection of pictures. Some of those university girls really do dress to thrill. Like Talen said...what was the post about?

[Siam.Rick]

2.

Thanks Talen (just don't read what I wrote to Lawrence below LOL or people will think I was just a simple opportunist).

Anyway, you'll just have to settle for cooling off on Beach Road.

[Siam.Rick]

3.

The pictures came before the story idea, but you guessed that already LOL.

I will be getting away from all this baking concrete tomorrow, when Khun Miken and I head for a wedding outside Korat. Mind you it was 37 in Korat and 39 in Khon Kaen! Hope there's enough "fluid" at the wedding.

[Talen]

4.

Excellent photo journalism...what was the story about again?

Hot hot hot it is in Pattaya as well, other than a few nasty storms it's just been HOT. And yet the Thai girls still wear jackets at midnight!

[Lawrence Michaels]

5.

I was wondering how you were going to incorporate the gratuitous pictures of a Thai student into the story. It's not too hot in Phuket at the moment, maybe you should get away from all the concrete.