Rainy season vs Hot & Dry season

Why the rainy season kicks the dry season's hairy bottom


Most people form cold and wet climates shudder at the thought of visting Thailand in the rainy season.   Surely the 'monsoon' would just mean a miserable time, rain, rain and more rain and doom and gloom.

I think people grossly over-estimate the alleged horrors of the rainy season, AND underestimate what it means to not have had significant rain for 5 months combined with temperatures approaching 40 degrees centigrade, and no wind to clear the air.

Before I'll get to a summary, let me show two pictures of Doi Suthep mountain, a 1600 meter forrested mountain directly West of the city of Chiang Mai.  The picture is taken from the Middle Ring road on the EAST side, so completely the other side of town.   The first picture is taken in the rainy season, the second one on 6 March 2007, the start of the hot & dry season, at exactly the same spot.

Doi Suthep Mountain in Chiang Mai

Ah, lovely Doi Suthep mountain.. clear air, nice temperatures and you can see for miles and miles

Taken from the same spot, showing just hazy crap

Ah yes, there it is. Same spot, but... Nothing. Note that you can just make out the telecoms tower at the Telecom Organization of Thailand building on the Superhighway (inner) ring road.    Or if you can't, I'll zoom in on it.  Doi Suthep is also a major tourist attraction; it's a National Park, has many waterfalls, walking trails and of course the famous temple near the top.  From the temple you have a great view of the city........... when the air is clear.   When it's not, you see absolutely nothing.  In fact during the height of the hot season you can't even see the whole mountain from as close by as the airport, which is right next to it.
 
Click here to see day to day picture comparisons

So in the rainy season:

  • It does NOT rain all the time.  In fact during most 'rainy' months there are as many hours of sunshine as there are in a really good summer in Western Europe.
  • When it DOES rain it's often for an hour or two in the late afternoon or evening. A heavy downpoor that clears the air and lowers the temperature for a more pleasant evening & night.
  • Nature is really alive..  Lush and green.   Nature responds to not seeing rainfall for 6 months in pretty much the same way as it responds to a European winter: It goes into hibernation. Some trees shed their leaves, others just turn brown or yellow. The last rainfall this season (2006/2007) was in October 2006! And there's still up to two months to go in the dry season. 
  • The only month that gets really wet in Northern / North Eastern Thaiand is September, which is at the end of the rainy season.  With water levels in rivers and streams high all around, there's often isolated flooding in low-lying areas.

What causes this misery in the Hot Season?

It's a combination of a couple of factors.   Some people think it can be attributed just by Chiang Mai's expansion as a city, but they'd be wrong for the most part. There's very little if any heavy industry for example, and cars are getting cleaner like everywhere else. The main cause is dust particles resulting from forest fires and burning of fields for agricutlture. Not just locally in the Chiang Mai area, but especially also in surrounding countries like Burma and Laos, possibly China.  Another factor is that without a nice monsoon to move the air, all the pollution keeps hanging around. That Chiang Mai is basically a big bowl-shaped valley also doesn't help, though other Northern and North Eastern provinces experience pretty much the same problem.    It's interesting to note that all that crap air disappears virtually overnight when the first rain of the season arrives, usually around May.

I for one can't wait.