Pah Leurat
July 22, 2010
Temps are now mercifully down from previous highs. It was only 78º yesterday morning and we picked up some rain from typhoon Conson in the South China Sea. Not enough to make much difference, but every little bit helps when things are so terribly dry.
You can even see an upward blip in the red line on the graph below indicating the current water levels in Sirikit Dam, 15 miles upstream from here. With a surface area of 100 square miles and a capacity of over 8-million acre feet, Sirikit is Thailand's second largest reservoir.
So that little blip is better than nothing, but even so the lake remains below 30% capacity and we still have less than 30% of the inflow for July 2009 — which was already a dry year.
RED LINE: Water levels in 2010 (Buddhist year 2553)
GREEN LINE: Water levels in 2009 (Buddhist year 2552)
BLUE SHADING: Reserves available in 2010
MAUVE SHADING: Reserves available in 2009
Pah Leurat
July 23, 2010
We got a brief sprinkle last night and some more rain today, but Chanthu's track yesterday was considerably farther NE of us than Conson's was last week.
See below and/or:
Typhoon 201002 (CONSON) - Google Map
http://agora.ex.nii.ac.jp/digital-typhoon/summary/wnp/g/201002.html.en
Typhoon 201003 (CHANTHU) - Google Map
http://agora.ex.nii.ac.jp/digital-typhoon/summary/wnp/g/201003.html.en
During a normal June-October rainy season, the SW monsoon (from the Arabic mawsim meaning season) brings us moisture from the Indian Ocean. Here in Uttaradit we typically receive between 55 and 65 inches per year, and most of that in July through September.
This year the SW monsoon is very weak, or at least very late, so we especially welcome any overflows from typhoons in the South China Sea. While the typhoons are not normally our main source of water, in any given year they typically bring some additional rains, which are usually accompanied by a few cool, grey days, and occasionally by torrential downpours. Thunder and lightning frequently accompany the SW monsoons, but only rarely these low pressure systems from the South China Sea.
In 1995 a series of back to back typhoons caused Sirikit Dam to overflow for the first time since it was completed in 1967. That's a dramatic event for any dam and particularly for this one which, even at 373 feet high, is built entirely of earth and rock with no concrete other than the plumbing for the hydroelectric generators.
The dam survived that event unscathed, but the river surged nearly 10 meters above its normal highest levels. Cities downstream were severely flooded and several villages were completely washed away. Fortunately for us, Pah Leurat is on a river bank about a meter above the highest flood level — which probably explains why it has stood right here for at least the last 500 years.
* According to the agora site, in the South China Sea there are an average of 7.3 typhoons per year. Conson and Chanthu are numbers 2 and 3 for 2010.
Typhoon 201002 (Canson - An historical place [Viet Nam] พายุ โกนเซิน) July 12 - 18, 2010
Typhoon 201003 (Chanthu - A kind of flower [Cambodia] พายุ จันทู) July 19 - 23, 2010
