The past couple of weeks have seen some seriously scorching temperatures in Thailand, with parts of the country seeing the mercury hit well over 40° Celsius.
It doesn’t look like there’ll be a let-up any time soon either; temperatures across the Kingdom are expected to hover around the late 30s and even hit 40°C in the next few days, according to the Thai Meteorological Department.
The long-awaited rainy season may well be delayed, according to experts, as there is so little moisture in the air at the moment that it’s stopping the formation of rain clouds, reports The Nation.
“Judging from the weather-pattern stimulator, we can see that Thailand will get more rain after mid-May, but I’m concerned that the weather in Thailand will still be too hot and dry for clouds to form and create rain,” said Wattana Kanbua, senior meteorologist and director of the Marine Meteorological Centre.
“The situation will be like last year when the winds came on time, but the weather was too hot and arid for rain to form. That is why we need more trees to trap the moisture and keep the weather cool,” he commented.
Although the start of rainy season proper isn’t expected for another couple of weeks, some parts of Thailand have still been hit with a number of powerful summer storms.
It’s calculated that the destructive thunderstorms have caused nine deaths, ten injuries and damage to over 20,000 homes in the East, Northeast, North and Central Plains, according to the Bangkok Post.
Concern regarding the severity of the storms have reached the upper echelons of government, with Prime Minister Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha urging the cabinet and other public officials to provide assistance and support for those in the affected areas.
Although the storms provided some relief from the heat spell in Thailand, unfortunately no rainwater could be retained as the rains had come down in areas below the Kingdom’s dams. Rainmaking operations have now been ordered by the Prime Minister in a bid to increase the nation’s water supply which has been dwindling during the drought.
Featured image is via Imgur
