Udon Thani Thailand Forum - Udon Thani, Thailand

Readings at Ban Jumpa 20ks west of Udon

May 2015 had 99mm from 12 days of rain (showers)
June 2015 had 72mm from 5 wet days
July 2015 had 228mm from 20 wet days
Aug 2015 so far 126mm from 9 wet days

Monthly average rainfall for May-August would be nearly 900 mm. So we are about 350 mm down so far, if using above figures. One week to make it up ... We have only had one significant rainfall in the past 2 weeks near global house.

Data from UTH airport via ftp://ftp.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/ghcn/v2/v2.prcp.Z

2015 mm (-999 missing amounts)
Jan -999
Feb 48
Mar -999
Apr -999 (hmmm?)
May 96
June 62
July 263
total 469mm

vs averages for each month (1..7) ...
7 18 45 82 204 214 216
Average at end of July 790 mm

so that is about 59% of average rainfall up to August 1st, and from what I am seeing August is not looking good.
You'd think with 59% of average rainfall the reservoirs would be closer to 59% full than 19% full... seems somebody
at the water ministry screwed up on that front.

April's data is "missing"... happens a lot here apparently TIT I don't recall any rain this year in April at my locale.

This is the 4th worst drought out of 105 years of data.
Worst was in 2007 with 295mm at the end of July.

Last time I put this data up was in 2012, which also was a very very bad year for rain at the end of July. Then a few days later the rains started to come, so [-o<

This years monthly totals so far
Jan 15
Feb 20
Mar 12
Apr 43 April got 3 thunder storms 4th, 16th and 30th
May 99
Jun 72
Jul 220
Aug 126

Total so far 615mm

the UTH is to the end of July, so

615
-126
=====
489mm

your Apr is additive so they are pretty close

Aug averages 259mm at UTH so at Aug 23rd it should be around 196mm and you are seeing 126mm so shy by about 35%.

Another 0.9 inch (22.86 mm) of overnight rain in tambon Ban Jan. Enjoying the cooler temps and cloudy skies.

Had an additional 1.4 inches (35.56 mm) of rain in the gauge this morning. Not much precipitation since, here in Ban Jan. Just cloudy skies and pleasant temperatures.

16mm and 32 mm for those days
and another 2mm this morning

Have not looked real hard yet but where can I buy a good rain guage?

Thanks in advance.

This mornings rain was the heaviest so far for this year's wet season
Had 62mm
Last months total rainfall was 193mm

this is the first year in 9 years of observation that the tree stumps are still visible above the water line in our local reservoir in September. normally - even these previous 3 years (2012,13,14) - the rainwater would have drained off the hills to at least a level that would cover the stumps

rjj04 wrote:Data from UTH airport via ftp://ftp.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/ghcn/v2/v2.prcp.Z

2015 mm (-999 missing amounts)
Jan -999
Feb 48
Mar -999
Apr -999 (hmmm?)
May 96
June 62
July 263
total 469mm

<snip>

I have no idea why you use this site, I can't even open your link????
Look at :-
http://en.tutiempo.net/climate/01-2015/ws-483540.html
For reliable details on Udon and Worldwide AWS (Automatic Weather Stations)

Jan = 3.05mm
Feb = 75.27mm
Mar = 39.37 mm
Apr = 120.16 mm
May = 95.23 mm
Jun = 63.87 mm --- Note 2 by daily readings averaged from Nong Khai and Sakon Nakhon
Jul = 252.72 mm
Aug = 267.78 mm

kris wrote:our local reservoir

More pasture land than fishing hole now.

bangdung...
"Can't even open your link".... Note the "ftp:" beginning of the link. As in, it is a data file to be downloaded via "file transfer protocol". Posted for reference, so people don't think I am pulling data out of my arse

"I have no idea why you use this site"... I have been using the NOAA site for at least eight years now. That tutiempto Spanish website seems to have come into existence in 2012? If it had been around back in 2007 or so, perhaps I would be using it I download the file from NOAA and run the data through my own scripts to process it so I can see broader trends, like how does this month's rainfall compare to the average rainfall for a station over all available years of data, and the s/w can rank the data. Unfortunately this tutiempto site doesn't do any of that so I guess I will still be using my own scripts. A pity they didn't put a little more effort into the job. Simply regurgitating data in a different format doesn't take much effort.

The station code is the same for both NOAA and en.tutiempo.net sites (station code 483540) and yet the data doesn't match. See below...
en.tutiempt.net noaa
jan 3 missing
feb 49 48
mar 39 missing
apr 120 missing
may 95 96
jun 62 62
jul 252 263
aug 208 missing

Feb,Mar,Jun,and Aug show missing data (one day in each month) on tutiempto . Yet the NOAA data is not "missing" for Feb, or Jun. Apr is "missing" in NOAA and yet no problems in tutiempto. Hmmm.

bandung_dero wrote for June...
"Note 2 by daily readings averaged from Nong Khai and Sakon Nakhon" where is this "Note 2?" I don't see it on that
page. I do see where it says... "Note that the averages and monthly totals are based on available data, when in the middle some result in red, it means that no information is available full month, in this case, the mean or total is the days for which there are data." So which is it, are they or are they not interpolating data from nearby stations?
Also, does it even make sense in Thailand to try to interpolate precipitation data? I mean, it can rain like the dickens in one spot and one km away there can be no rain at all. Interpolating temperature data makes sense I suppose. Again, where is this "Note 2"??? Also, it might make sense to drop the data in the case of taking a mean value, but dropping data when it is for a "total" value? Where does this tutiempto site get there data? I doubt they have direct access to the sensors.

I know that NOAA has "raw" data files from the sensors and it takes those raw numbers and compensates for errors and then publishes another file (at least for temperature data). Usually there are only one or two "missing" (-9999) values in the NOAA precipitation data for any given year, yet this year there are already four "missing" values. Strange that. It is also strange that the "missing" data months for NOAA data don't match the "red" missing data in the en.tutiempo site. I'll have to have a look into all this when I have more free time. I sent a message to the people at the tutiempo site so I'll see what they have to say.

rjj04 wrote: bandung_dero wrote for June...
"Note 2 by daily readings averaged from Nong Khai and Sakon Nakhon" where is this "Note 2?" I don't see it on that
page.

The readings were missing for two days during that month so I obtained the readings from 2, relatively close locations, and averaged them to fill the gaps.

Tutiempo lists historical data for Udon going back as far as 1943 (OK, lots missing) but I use from 1991 onward and have correlated it ALL into a spreadsheet as an aid to see trends and create charts etc. I have done it for Nong Khai and Sakon Nakhon also, by triangulating (averaging the three by distance) I can come up with reasonably accurate data for my home.

Eg,
=((E4*0.3546)+(U4*0.3686)+(AK4*0.2769))

E4 = Data location for UT
U4 = Data location for NK
AK4 = Data location for SN

The multipliers are the inverse of the relative distances from my home.

BTW, I have two rain gauges at my home (different types brought over from Aust.) and they definitely prove your right in saying it can piss down here and drizzling a few km away. BUT over the longer term that ripples out as the opposite occurs. We can only do what we do! Anything to cure the boredom.

buy a bicycle and get out in the country regular. you won`t need any gauges to see whats happening...

Strange you should say that. A site member and avid cyclist occasionally peddles past my place, in the country. He has asked me to pass on rain data to him. I guess he missed something!!

you can`t burn a billion years worth of fossil fuels in a couple of centuries and expect to get away with it...

Bandung_Dero wrote:Strange you should say that. A site member and avid cyclist occasionally peddles past my place, in the country. He has asked me to pass on rain data to him. I guess he missed something!!

absolutely correct... the statistics are absolutely necessary. I`m just saying the changes are so dramatic, you don`t actually need them to see whats going on.

OK. strike a deal. we`ll do the cycling.. you can do the boring stuff...