Country braces for 43-degree scorcher

WEATHER

This summer will be slightly hotter than last year with a high of 43 degrees Celsius forecast in some northern and northeastern provinces in April, the Meteorological Department says.

The impact of the La Nina weather phenomenon in the Pacific Ocean will also increase rainfall in the country, department chief Somchai Baimoung said yesterday.

The impact of La Nina will last until the middle of this year.

Mr Somchai played down fears that Thailand might suffer a heatwave similar to the one that has ravaged Australia where at least two people have died from the scorching weather.

The mercury reached 45.6 degrees in Adelaide, South Australia, on Wednesday, the hottest temperature recorded there in 70 years.

"Don't panic," he said. "There is a very low possibility that a heat wave will happen in Thailand."

According to the department's 30-year statistics, Thailand's hottest day was recorded on April 25, 2007, when the temperature hit 44 degrees in Tak province.

Thailand will enter summer in the middle of next month. There are 39 provinces in the North and Northeast likely to face extreme weather conditions of up to 43 degrees. They include Mae Hong Son, Chiang Mai, Lampang, Lamphun, Sukhothai, Tak, Udon Thani and Sakhon Nakhon.

Temperatures in Bangkok and neighbouring provinces are expected to range between 37 and 39 degrees this summer.

The country should also prepare for tropical storms in March and April, the department said.

Chulalongkorn University's lecturer Anond Snidwongs, director of climate research agency Start, said Thailand's average temperature tended to rise each year.

"According to our study, the average temperature in Mae Hong Son will be up between 0.6 to 1 degree Celsius," he said.

The agency has worked with the United Nations Development Programme to forecast social and economic impacts of climate change and create adaptation plans.

Meanwhile, the Rockefeller Foundation has pledged financial support to Thailand to develop a strategy on climate change resilience in major cities.

Thailand has been selected as the fourth country after India, Vietnam, and Indonesia to join the foundation's Climate Change Resilience Network which aims to help urban communities cope with climate change.

The network was established following scientific predictions that people in major cities in Asia would be severely affected by global warming and climate change.

Under the five-year climate change resilience project, which will end in 2012, the foundation would grant US$70 million (2.4 billion baht) to selected cities to develop guidelines to protect urban populations from the lethal impacts of climate change.