Current weather
 

Gosh...we're leaving L.A. in one week and Chiang Mai & Samui are having thunderstorms. There's also flooding in southern Thailand but I think Samui is far enough away? Is this normal at this time of year? Thanks for any reassurance you can provide.

We haven’t had a thunder storm here in Chiang Mai for weeks. It is true that the wet season seemed to stretch out a bit, but only to about the end of November.

Last night temperatures were down to 13 and yesterday’s maximum was 25, both according to my outdoor thermometer. The forecast for today is 15 to 27 with some cloud.

Tangata, what's the temperature in Fahrenheit? Do we need to bring warm clothes and rainjackets? Thanks!

Paige,
Here's an online conversion site, so you can figure the temperatures out yourself:

http://www.onlineconversion.com/temperature.htm

paigeTN,
A method that you might find helpful instead of converting temperatures from Celsius to Fahrenheit each time is to just remember a few key temperatures:
0° C. = freezing
22°C. = room temperature
37°C. = body temperature
If you remember just those three, you can extrapolate any others from there.

After a while, you just get a "feel" for what the temperatures are, and you don't have to convert anymore.

Someone once told me that a VERY rough formula for converting C to F is to double the Celsius degrees and add 30 to get to Fahrenheit.

So 22C X 2 = 44 +30 = 74.
Not exactly. But ballpark.

0 celsius X 2 = 0 + 30 = 30.
Again, not quite. But close.

37 celsius X 2 = 74 + 30 = 104
It gets a little worse as the temperatures get higher. But still, a rough estimate.

“Do we need to bring warm clothes and rainjackets?”

You certainly shouldn’t need rain jackets at this time of the year. You might get some rain in the south, but there it will be too hot and humid to wear a raincoat.

Whether (Weather?) or not you need warm clothes depends on what you are used to. We were 15 to 25 yesterday, (77 to 59) so you may need a light pullover in the evenings. If you are thinking of going into the hills it can drop below freezing over night. Bear in mind also, that most places are designed for the heat, not for the cold and any form of heating is very rare.