Weather warning issued for Phuket, Andaman

PHUKET: The Thai Meteorological Department (TMD) has issued its second weather warning in 24 hours for Phuket and other provinces along the Andaman coast, advising the public to beware heavy rain, rough seas and possible flooding.

The latest advisory, issued by the Southern Meteorological Center at Phuket Airport at 11am today, repeated the TMD’s warning of “abundant rain to very heavy rain” with wind gusts in some areas due to “rather strong” monsoonal conditions across the region.

The warning was issued for Phuket and the Andaman coast provinces of Ranong, Phang Nga, Phuket, Krabi, Trang and Satun.

All vessels in the region were warned to proceed with caution and small boats urged to keep ashore as wind-driven waves up to three meters high continue to cause rough conditions in the Andaman Sea.

The TMD monitoring station on Thalang Road in Phuket Town recorded 68.7mm of rain yesterday, bringing year-to-date rainfall there to 1,950.4mm.

The station at Phuket Airport recorded 48.5mm, increasing the year-to-date total there to 2,229.8mm.

Ranong is the rainiest location in Thailand, with more than 208mm of rainfall yesterday bringing the year-to-date total there to 4,302.5mm.

Heavy rain has been reported across most of Thailand yesterday through today due to a monsoon trough crossing central Thailand.

Bangkok was hit by heavy rain overnight that continued throughout this morning, causing flooding in many areas and worsening the already chaotic traffic in the rush hour.