#Thailand - Jet-skis, parasail rides banned until Thursday on Phuket’s west coast

The acting chief of the Phuket Marine Office has announced a ban on jet-ski and parasail ride operators using Phuket’s west-coast beaches, including today. 

 Wiwat Chitcherdwong said: “According to the Thai Meteorological Department Office, heavy rain and high waves of up to 3 metres are still affecting the Andaman Sea until Thursday, August 9.” 

“Jet-skis and parasails are now being banned until the order is changed.” he added.

 Source - TheNation

#Philippines - Phivolcs warns of catastrophic mudflow from Mayon

LEGAZPI CITY — The threat of catastrophic mudflow is building on the slopes of Mount Mayon where nearly 90,000 residents have been moved out of harm’s way, authorities said on Tuesday.

Mayon has spewed millions of tons of ash, rocks, lava and debris in less than three weeks, much of it loosely lodged on its burnt slopes and which experts warn could be dislodged by heavy rain.

Activity continued overnight with “energetic lava effusion,” while previously extruded lava was also collapsing on the crater, only to be pushed out again as debris, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) said in its latest bulletin.

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Loud booming sounds, like that of thunder, accompanied the eruptions, according to an Agence France-Presse (AFP) photographer near the mountain.

“The public is strongly advised to be vigilant and desist from entering the 8-kilometer radius danger zone, and to be additionally vigilant against pyroclastic density currents, lahar and sediment-laden stream flows,” the bulletin said.
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Pyroclastic currents are the superheated clouds of gas, ash and other volcanic debris that burn everything in their path as they speed down the slopes of the 2,460-meter volcano in Albay province.

The institute said these materials were building blocks for lahar mammoth debris flows that could find their way into streams and rivers and mow down surrounding communities.

An earlier Mayon eruption passed without any casualties in 2006, but four months later a typhoon unleashed an avalanche of volcanic mud from its slopes, killing about 1,000 people.
On Saturday, Phivolcs issued its first lahar warning on Mayon this year due to incessant rain that is usual in the region at this time of the year.

A day later, Phivolcs made a video recording of lahar flowing down a river near Daraga town south of the volcano, though it did not cause any damage or casualties.

Source - inquirer.net

More rains predicted for #Bangkok

The Meteorological Department on Saturday predicted more rains for Bangkok and its vicinity.

The department forecast fairly widespread thundershowers and isolate heavy rain for Saturday.

It explained that the rains would be unleashed by the influence of a monsoon and a high-pressure system, but the tropical storm Khanun would have no effect on Thailand.

The department said on Saturday that the storm was now over the upper South China Sea, west of Philippines. It is forecast to move to Hainan, China and upper Vietnam from October 15-17. It will then lose energy quickly after it makes landfall in upper Vietnam during that period.

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In its forecast issued at 10am, the Meteorological Department said a monsoon trough lies across the lower Central, the upper South and the East, while the high-pressure system still extends from China to the upper Northeast and the upper Laos.

This will result in outbreaks of rains and isolated downpours over the country.

Source - TheNation