Temperatures to soar across country
An unusually hot summer is expected this year, starting from the middle of the month, about two months earlier than normal. According to the Meteorological Department, this summer the average temperature will reach 40 to 43 degrees Celsius in the northern and northeastern provinces. For the central and eastern provinces, average temperatures would climb to 40 to 42 degrees.
In Bangkok, surrounding provinces and the southern provinces, the average temperatures will reach 37 to 39 degrees.
Dry weather in summer will put many areas at high risk of fire. The department said the public should be cautious when using fuel. Widespread forest fires are also forecast.
Frequent summer storms are expected in March and April in upper parts of the country. During summer storms, thundershowers, strong winds and hail are likely, which could damage farm produce, the department said.
From late April to May, a cyclone is expected to develop in the Andaman sea before moving nearer to Burma. This will cause the amount of rainfall to rise in the western part of Thailand. Flash floods are expected in some plains areas.
Rainfall is likely to be higher than in previous summers.
But the country will not escape drought conditions, as the amount of rainfall is unlikely to meet the country's demand for water supply, especially in drought-stricken areas in northern and northeastern provinces.
Director of the Royal Rain-making Centre for the central region, Arkhane Bunlert, said his unit had detected unusually low humidity in the air, which lent support to forecasts of a weather anomaly this summer.
''From our observations, the weather conditions now are like those we get in summer, which should begin in April,'' said Mr Arkhane.
This year, up to seven provinces are expected to be hard hit by drought, he said.
The phenomenon was probably triggered by global warming and his centre had been moving its flying base from Lop Buri to Nakhon Sawan to accommodate rain-making operations in central, western and lower northern provinces.
He said moving the base to Nakhon Sawan will make its easier for rain-making pilots to draw cloud mass from Burma where humidity is higher than Thailand.
Global warming is something the government and Bangkok Metropolitan Administration are trying to tackle, including a campaign to encourage motorists to use the public transport system to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide.
Källa: Bangkok Post
