2022 to be Prachuap’s rainiest year on record?

Above average rainfall in Prachuap Khiri Khan to date, forecast leading into the Thai province’s wettest month

MUEANG DISTRICT: October 1, 2022: Prachuap Khiri Khan province is on course to log its highest amount of rainfall in decades, with above-average rain forecast in the coming peak of the monsoon.

Indeed, October has historically been the province’s rainiest month, and during the first nine months of 2022, Prachuap Khiri Khan has already exceeded its full-year precipitation (10-year) average, which was about 1,113 mm (TMD annual averages: 2011 – 2021).

According to data from the Thailand Meteorological Department (TMD), from January 1 to September 29, 2022 the province received 1,138.5 millimeters of rainfall, which is 44% higher than the 1995 baseline year-to-date “normal” value of of 790.1mm. 

Data from the TMD and the Department of Water Resources (DWR) shows anomalous rainfall events in February and May of this year. 

To date this year the DWR’s Thailand’s Early Warning System has triggered nine incessant rainfall advisories in Prachuap Khiri Khan: Six issued in May were in Bang Saphan and Thap Sakae districts, and three issued in February were in Mueang District.  The highest level of these was when 112.5mm fell in Khlong Wan in less than 24 hours on February 15. 

Advisories are issued when excessive rainfall is recorded within a 24-to-48-hour period, posing flash flood and landslide threats. 

*See related story: Prachuap Khiri Khan braces for Noru rain.

October 2022 Rain Forecast

The TMD’s Climatological Center forecasts for Prachuap Khiri Khan to receive above-average precipitation in October 2022. Large portions of the province are expected to receive in excess of 300mm of rainfall this month, TMD forecast maps show. 

In the last two decades, the highest amount of rainfall recorded in Prachuap Khiri Khan was in 2017, when the province annual rainfall average was logged at 1,474.5 mm. 

Therefore, the province would need to receive at least 340mm in the final three months of 2022 to exceed this and thus attain a new 20-year high.