Half of Thailand's Weather Sites Break All-time Heat Records in 42 Days

By: Christopher C. Burt , 9:09PM,GMT on May 30,2016




 

Half of Thailand's Weather Sites Break All-time Heat records in 42 Days

All-time national heat records have been set this past April and May in India, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and the Republic of Maldives. The unprecedented heat has killed hundreds in India and dozens in Thailand so far. But nothing in the record books can compare to what has recently occurred in Thailand: a large country with over 120 meteorological sites that has seen half of its official weather stations break their all-time heat records. Here are the details.

We knew the ‘super’ El Nino this past year would have a big affect on the world’s climate. It did not produce the hoped for big rains in California but it did produce the heat and drought in Southeast Asia as forecast. Of all the countries effected the most by this event Thailand has proven to see something exceptional weather-wise: more than half of all the country’s official weather sites reported their all-time heat records during the months of April and May. Thailand’s meteorological service only dates back to 1951 but it is a large country with over 120 official observation sites and a sophisticated observation network. Thus it is truly amazing that at least 66 of these 120 sites measured their hottest temperature on record during the brief period of April 10-May 22.

Before I go into the details about Thailand, here is a brief recap of the new national all-time heat records set since April 1st (you will recognize some of the information below from my previous blog):

India

On May 19th a weather site in Phalodi, Rajasthan registered a 51.0°C (123.8°F) temperature, the highest temperature ever measured in India. The previous record was an unofficial 50.6°C (123.1°F) at Pachpadra, Rajasthan on May 25, 1886. A similar reading was reported from Alwar on May 10, 1956 and considered official by the Indian Meteorological Department however, according to climatologist Maximiliano Herrera, this figure was inflated by over exposure of the instruments and was not consistent with other sites in the surrounding area. The highest reliably measured temperature previous to the Phalodi record was 50.0°C (122.0°F) at Ganganagar on June 14, 1934 and also at Dholpur on June 8, 1995. Many cities in India broke their all-time heat records this past May including 50.2°C (122.4°F) at Churu, 49.5°C (121.1°F) at Bikaner, 48.8°C (119.8°F) at Jodhpur, 48.0°C (118.4°F) at Ahmedabad, and 46.7°C (116.1°F) at Bhopal. For a complete list of all the records see Maximiliano Herrera’s web site.

Temperatures in India have moderated a bit recently as the monsoon season approaches, which appears to be on schedule this year.



A map illustrating the dates of the normal onset of the monsoon in India (red-dashed lines) and where the actual advance lines have been so far this season (green solid lines). Map courtesy of IMD (Indian Meteorological Department).

The warmest reading so far observed anywhere in Asia this spring has been a 52.2°C (126.0°F) at Larkana in Pakistan on May 19th.

Cambodia

National all-time record high of 42.6°C (108.7°F) set at Preah Vihea on April 15th. This surpassed the record set just two days previously at Bantey Ampil (42.2°C/108.0°F on April 13th). Prior to this year, the maximum measured temperature in Cambodia was 41.4°C (106.5°F) at Stoeng Treng in 1960. The capital city of Phnom Penh also measured its highest temperature on record with a 41.0°C (105.8°F) reading and about half a dozen other cities and towns saw temperatures peak above the previous national record of 1960!

Laos

National all-time record high of 42.3°C (108.1°F) set at Seno on April 13th. This surpassed the former record of 42.0°C (107.6°F) record at Savannakhet in March 1933. An all-time national record high minimum temperature was measured at Takhek on April 13th when the low fell to only 30.5°C (86.9°F).

Republic of Maldives

In the Maldives a national record high of 35.0°C (95.0°F) was observed at Hanimadhoo on April 30th edging out the previous record of 34.8° (94.6°F) set at Kadhdhoo on March 27, 1999 (actually, earlier in the month, Hanimadhoo reached 34.9°C on April 16th).

Thailand

Of all the nations affected by the heat waves over the past two months Thailand has probably experienced the most widespread anomalous temperature departures. Never before in modern history has the country (at least since the establishment of its meteorological department in 1951) experienced such a widespread and prolonged heat event. Every region of the country experienced all-time record high temperatures: from Hat Yai in the far south to Mae Hong Son in the far north and Ubon Ratchathani in the far east. Every region and province saw sites exceed previous observed record maximum temperatures and every type of environment was affected: high mountains (as represented by Doi Ang Kang at 1530 m/5000’) and islands, such as the iconic beach resorts of Phuket and Ko Samui.



A simplified map of Thailand showing the location of some of its major towns and cities. As you can see from the table below, most of these sites broke their all-time heat records. Thailand is approximately 513,000 sq. kl (200,000 sq. miles), considerably larger than Germany and has a population of 68 million. It extends over 1600 kl (1000 miles) north to south between 5°N to 21°N latitude.



A list of all the sites that observed or tied all-time record high temperatures in Thailand between April 10th and May 22nd. The towns with a ‘2’ next to them mean these sites have two observation sites in the TDM (Thai Meteorological Department) database: one the official town or airport site and one an ‘agro-meteorological’ site. There appears to be a total of 120 sites represented in the TMD database.

66 sites out of the 120 appear to have set or tied their all-time heat records during the April 10-May 22 time frame: that is 55% of all the weather stations in the country. I know of no other nation the size of Thailand and with the extensive network of weather sites, that has ever seen this large a proportion of their weather stations observe all-time heat records over such a brief span of time. A caveat is that many of the sites listed in the table above have relatively short PORs (periods of record) in some cases dating back to just the 1990s or 2000. Curiously, Bangkok, Thailand’s largest city and one of the hottest metropolises in the world (in terms of average annual temperature) failed to top its record of 40.8°C (105.4°F) set back on May 22, 1983 (at its Don Muang Airport site). The warmest reading this spring has been a modest 39.9°C (103.8°F) on April 23rd. The heat wave has subsided somewhat now as the rainy season gets underway. Hopefully, the rains this summer will make a dent in the serious drought that has been affecting the country and much of Southeast Asia.

KUDOS: To Maximiliano Herrera for much of the above information. For a more comprehensive look at all the temperature records broken so far this year see his web site here.

Christopher C. Burt
Weather Historian