Tuesday 2 November 2010

Koh Samui storm early November, some pictures

Koh Samui storm early November, some pictures

Although I'm enjoying a sunny afternoon in Koh Lanta, I'm in regular contact with my family and friends back on Samui and the stories are interesting.
Since yesterday evening Samui is having a lot of rain and somewhere during the night the power went off, not to come back as of right now, a good 18 hours later! Apparently the power may be off for another 2 or 3 days due to a problem at the main power distribution station.

A view on the ring road near Bangkok-Samui hospital

Here on Koh Lanta we had very strong and heavy wind very early in the morning but around 8am that subsided and we have sunshine now during the afternoon.
Samui on the other hand is in for less wind and almost no rain tomorrow but than another 3 to 4 days of rain are on the horizon before there may be any sign of sunshine again.

Chaweng downtown

As expected and as shown in the picture above, there is flash flooding around the island, this picture showing downtown Chaweng. With the new drainage system, I expect the water to subside a few hours after the rain stops.

More flooding in Chaweng

My wife reported about flash flooding near our house in the Plai Laem area. Let's hope they can get the power back on again quickly!

All the best to my family and friends on Samui.

Camille

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi,
Read about your daily update on Samui weather, its very useful. Can I
consult you if you advise us to travel to Samui this weekend on Sat?
According to weather forecast, still heavy rain till Sat. Sun onwards will
be better. I am concerned abt flooding and safety as my children will be
travelling with me. Is there heavy flooding so far? Heard the airport was
closed yesterday or day before, is it true? Thanks in advanced.

Camille said...

Hi,

Thanks for the support. In my opinion I think it's fine to travel to Samui come this weekend but keep an eye out on the developments. Out of experience it's usually one period of heavy rain and after that things go back to 'normal', this is however not a guarantee.

If you check my reports you can see that there was heavy flooding and plenty of flash floods, however, due to the new drainage system, once it stops raining the floodings should disappear rather swiftly.
The airport was closed but opened last night with one outbound and one inbound flight from/to Bangkok.

Hope this helps for now.

KS said...

Thanks for your reply, Camille. Actually I am quite worried given the current situation. We will be landing on Sat night and if there is a thunderstorm, we may be caught.
Can I ask if early Dec (say 5 Dec) would be a better time to travel to Samui? Will the heavy downpour subside by then?

KS

Camille said...

Hi KS,

Usually by early December things are better, but I couldn’t give a guarantee on this. As I mentioned before, we typically only get one rough period per year, in varying degrees, so after this spell, looking back at earlier years, the rough part should be over. Most likely 5th December should have better conditions

KS said...

Camille,

Thanks much for your advice. I am likely to postpone my trip to early December and will continue to visit your blog for useful updates.

KS

Camille said...

Hi KS,

You’re welcome and I’m glad that I’m able to help. Right now postponing may be the best option.

KS said...

Camille,

I may have problem postponing my trip...I am monitoring the weather closely. According to weather forecast, the worst seems to be coming to an end after Thur. Sun onwards will have good weather. Keeping my fnger cross and will check out your blog for update daily, Thanks.

KS

Camille said...

Hi KS,

Right now it seems that as of the 5th things slowly will start to get back to normal. It’s worthwhile keeping an eye out over a depression that seems to be forming up over Cambodia and Vietnam.

Best regards and good luck!

Kalz said...

Hello Cammile and KS,

This is just the information I was looking for. I am planning my honeymoon from the 11th to 16th. in Koh samui/Koh phangan. After searching a lot we finally zeroed in Koh samui and Koh phangan.We spoke to the santhiya resorts and are about to finalise it. When we asked them they told us that the weather will be usually dry during that time. But I am a bit sceptical and wanted a third opinion. Do you think we should move it to say Koh Lanta or Krabi/Phi Phi regions considering the weather there? Its a real special occasion as we both are marrying after 16 long years of courtship. We wanted to make it special and dont like the idea of moving our holiday to some other country.:(

Looking forward to your replies.

Thanks,
Kala

Camille said...

Hi Kala,

In my opinion you will be better off around the Krabi/Phi Phi/Koh Lanta area during that time frame.
I wish I could say different but during that time of the year, the 'other' or Western side will have in general better weather conditions compared to Samui/Phangan.

Kalz said...

Thank you so much Camille. I will be doing do as you say. Hope i am able to visit Koh samui some other time.
So since the regions on the other side and closer to phuket would be drier does that mean that we will be able to do snorkelling and other water sports ?

cheers,
Kala

Camille said...

Hi Kala,

You should have no problem at all to do some nice snorkeling and other water sports at the East side this month!

Enjoy and hope to see you another time on Samui!

Kalz said...

Thank you Camille :)

I really hope to see u in samui sometime !

Kala

Camille said...

Hi Kalz,

Looking forward to that!

Brad said...

we are arriving on the 10th to stay at Centara in Cheweng Beach. Do you think it will be good by then. How much damage is in that area?

Camille said...

Hi Brad,

By the 10th things should have improved drastically but there may still be some occasional rain, it being the rainy season after all. I wouldn't expect any rain and storms in the magnitude Samui just experienced, that was very unusual.