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What to expect in APRIL 2006

Statistics

	Average temperature 28.7 C Average rainfall 50.1 mm Cloud cover 3.8/10 Humidity 59 % Rainy days 6.2 Sunshine 271 hrs.

Some like it hot, they say. And if you're one of them, you're going to have a great time in Chiang Mai this month, when it's hotter than the hobs of hell. As for the rest of us, we get ourselves a ticket out - Alaska, the Himalayas, somewhere like that. At least, that's what we dream of doing. I mean - temperatures up in the 40 C range, that air so hazy you can't see Doi Suthep even from close up, and fires everywhere. If all else fails, off to the local pool for a lengthy dunking - and there are plenty around, fortunately. But we locals tie our roofs down before going out, and close our windows, since this is the time for sudden wind- and rain-storms that can be surprisingly violent. Your weatherman can remember passing one of the condos a couple of years back at this time and being all but thrown off his motorbike by freak gusts. And is it imagination or are these storms are getting rougher?

At all events, on Doi Suthep and the other mountains close to Chiang Mai, at least the fires are far less serious and long-lasting than they were fifteen to twenty years back, when they would go on unchecked for days, creeping higher and higher up the mountain and into the evergreen forest, where they did extensive damage. Now, the Forestry Department fire services are much more on the ball and you may see helicopters baling water from local reservoirs to help the fighters on the ground dowse the flames before they get out of control.

Local belief, by the way, has it that the water-throwing festival helps bring on the rainy season, and to make doubly sure there's a ritual of parading and lustrating the Wat Chedi Luang Buddha image, Phra Fon Saen Ha ('The Image of the One Hundred Thousand Showers') during the Intakhin Festival next month. It's true it isn't unusual to get at least a sprinkling or two around or after the Songkran celebration, but the statistics show it isn't till July that we can expect substantial rainfall. One thing you can be sure, at least. During the week of Songkran in Chiang Mai, and for anything up to a fortnight in the rural North and Northeast, you won't have to rely on Mother Nature to cool you down. The local people are all too happy to do that for you, over and over.

Just grin and bear it.