Koh Samui, Thailand daily weather update; 26th October, 2011

Today's weather;

The sky over Koh Samui is clouded by light grey clouds but it's still dry. Current temp at 7am is 28.7C, fairly warm so early in the morning.

The forecast is still favorable, although some rain is predicted during a some days out of the next seven days, it's by far not the starts of the rainy season, yet.

Many people seem to be worried about potential shortages on the island. Right now there are shortages around Thailand, not only on Samui. All major distribution centers are flooded and especially bottled water is hard to come by. However, on Samui there's water delivery service that delivers 20 liter bottles of water, you pay a 100,-THB deposit and off you go, easy peasy. This water originates on Samui so it's unlikely that there will be shortage of this water soon.

Especially big chains like Tesco Lotus, Big C and Makro have more and more empty shells but it's still not anywhere near like it is around Bangkok.

Samui sunset yesterday

Right now the mood on the island is fine, nobody seems to be overly worried about the floods. If you're planning to visit Samui soon, there's no need to change your plans.

Yesterday saw a great start of the day around Koh Samui with a sunny sky. Clouds moved in rather quickly though and it was cloudy all day long until the late afternoon when sunny sky patches appeared again. It stayed dry all the while on the island at the areas that I was at. Max temp reached 30.3C

A flood photo that sticks out, flooded cars at the Honda plant in Ayuthaya, earlier this month by Christophe Archambault

The situation around Bangkok is still crucuial and the Don Muang airport has been closed. The international airport Suvarnabhumi is still open and operational.

"The Chao Phraya River's water level in Bangkok will likely rise to 2.6 metres [above normal sea level] over the coming weekend. It's going to be higher than the embankment," Bangkok Governor MR Sukhumbhand Paribatra said yesterday. The 27th, 28th and 31st of October have been declared 'emergency' holidays in Bangkok, giving people the chance to deal with the floods over a long weekend off.

The political side of these floods remains a hot iron to touch but first calls for the current PM to step down are being spotted.

In all the confusion that the current government is creating, apparently help offered by the US Navy had been denied.

Tourist revenue has lost around 10 Billion Thai baht but on the up side, a loan of 325 Billion Thai Baht has been approved to get loans for flood hit businesses.

If you click here, you will find a gallery of excellent pictures covering some aspects of the flood and here are some pictures from yesterday around Bangkok.

Camille