Meteorologists recorded wind speeds as strong as 45kph and say these are likely to continue through the weekend. They forecast that waves on the Andaman facing shoreline today and over the weekend will be between two and four metes high.
The adverse forecast has caused marine authorities in the region to prohibit any boat under 10 metres long from leaving port. This also applies to tourist and dive boats normally used for excursions to Racha Island and the Phi Phi archipelago.
The weather forecasters say that even though the ban does not apply to larger vessels, the heavy seas will make conditions on board them very unpleasant. More than one centimetre of rain fell last night and low lying regions along the coast have been swamped by water runoff today.
On Phuket, several locations including parts of Phuket Town were under water today and motorists reported roads were impassable to all but 4WD vehicles. The country’s Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation says that landslides and flash-floods are a possibility especially if the rain continues unabated.
Monsoon storms batter Thai Andaman sea shoreline
News in Asia
Heavy storms battered the Andaman Sea region of southern Thailand overnight and caused floods in multiple locations. The storms struck coastal provinces all the way down from Ranong to Satun on the Malaysian border.