The Thai Pirate - Thai Blog and Travel Stories

Baby tornado in Pattaya

Pattaya had it's own little sea tornado last week. The Jomtien beach, where Sutiya and I often go, played host to one on the evening of September 11th.

Part of me is well peeved we weren't in the apartment, where we would have had a first class seat, although I know Sutiya is glad we were not in the vicinity. Thai's are, understandably, very jumpy about the weather after what happened at Christmas in 2004.

Whilst searching for a picture of the Pattaya storm, I came across a tragic story about an unfortunate Brit who had been electrocuted in Pattaya whilst walking through the knee high water one evening.

Having also been in Thailand during quite serious flooding, I too have had to wade through knee high deep water to get from A to B. I'm generally quite blasé about such things, but this story really brings you down with a bump. This is by no means meant to scare people away from Thailand, I think it's important to be aware of such events, in order to ensure similar accidents don't occur. I myself feel I am more aware for having read it. You can read the full story here.

When we were in Pattaya just over a week ago, although it was nice weather where we were, over the bay there was a big storm with accompanying thunder claps and lightening. The picture below shows the contrast clearly in the clouds. At the time, I did wonder if the area circled in red was the beginning of a small sea tornado, as it stood out so starkly and appeared to be over the water. A week later, Pattaya did have a tornado, near enough at this exact location.

It's no surprise really; the Pattaya Bay seems to be the perfect melting pot for baby tornados, where you sometimes get extreme hot and cold air colliding.

And with such an open bay, you could get quite a spectacular view as well!

When it rains, it REALLY rains

For all of you who think it's always nice and sunny in Thailand, I can assure you it's not.

The heavy rains at this time of year can cause rapid flash flooding. Water 8 inches deep literally occurred within 10 minute on this street in Pattaya.

There is poor water drainage throughout urban areas in Thailand, and if you are at the bottom of a hill in a built up area when heavy rain hits, best to start heading upwards, and quickly.

The road behind us in the photo began to resemble a river rather than a street, rain water was pouring off the roofs and out of the drains that are supposed to transport it away.

During the rainy season (July-Oct) there is always lots of rain, but this year it is coming down heavy. There are currently floods occurring around the country, with the worst hit areas situated in the North around Chaing Mai and surrounding provinces. We are not being spared in Suphan either, where we have had heavy rain for 2 days now, day and night, with talk that it will continue for another FIVE days.

On top of this, and I don't quite understand the exact mechanics yet, but I am told, when the rain water gets too heavy and the rivers risk bursting their banks, much of this extra water is deliberately directed into the areas that surround Bangkok (which includes Suphan) in order to spare the capital!

Everyone who attended my wedding in 2006 has first hand experience of just how that turns out.

Road Jokers vs The Rainy Season, sometimes the inevitable happens....

On our way to Pattaya, was overtaken at a ridiculous speed by a road joker in a yellow sports car. He must have been doing 120mph, possibly more.

The weather at this time of year in Thailand is incredible. One minute you will be basking in the sun (in the comfort of your air conditioned car, most of the time) and then in the next second the clouds will darken and the mother of all storms will be upon you, huge thunder claps, bright bolts of lightening streaking across the sky, and rain that is so heavy that even with the quickest setting on the old window wipers, you can still barely see for the gushing streams of water flowing down the wind shield.

And then gone. As quick as it happened, it is bright again. Sometimes you will drive out of a storm, leaving it raging behind you, whilst the road in front is left completely dry.

This amazing yet treacherous weather is due to it being the rainy season in Thailand, running from July to October. It is also the Bain of road jokers; you see kids on mopeds, getting soaked through, vendors in their hot dog stands, peddling for their life.

Rain IS the Thai mans kryptonite!

So what happens when you mix Thai road jokers (the speeding variety) with this incredibly changeable weather? Well, the road jokers sometimes come unstuck, and inevitably there are some casualties, as the pic demonstrates (miraculously, nobody badly hurt I believe).