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Did It Really Snow in Thailand in 1955? (The Truth Revealed)

It's deep into December and there's no snow in Thailand this year, yet!

I'll bet 100 Bitcoins it won't happen. But according to Thailand's national weather archives, it did snow once!

The only ever official (I use that word loosely) snow recorded in Thailand was in Chiang Rai on 7th January 1955 (see the picture below).

According to the notice on this picture, the snow (sort of) came after rainfall at 6pm.

This event was well documented by locals and officially covered by local papers, The story has been passed down through generations

The story goes that there after the rain came hail, which produced a snow-like blanket on the ground. You have to admit, the ground does look white and fluffy.

This remained for about 14 hours until it began to melt away.

Sadly, 18 hours later, the snow had disappeared.

This story is fiercely contested by snow geeks who say the “snow” was formed by hail and therefore doesn't constitute a proper snowfall. However, residents beg to differ and proudly boast of their claim to snow fame.

Snow or not, this is as close as you're going to get to it in Thailand, because this is the one and only time it has ever happened.

It does look a lot like snow in the picture though, doesn't it?

snow in thailand

Those who live in the North will know that it does get pretty chilly come December-February. The lowest temperature ever recorded for Chiang Rai is 2°C, about 35°F.

Heavy dew is quite common up North and frost on leaves and vegetation in the very high grounds is sometimes reported late in the year.

Bangkok doesn't get that cold by a long shot. It hit its coldest record in 30 years on January 23rd 2014, when the temperature fell to 15.6°C – not really that cold compared with Western climates, but quite a shock for the residents who are used to more like 30°C year-round.

The lowest ever recorded temperature in Bangkok was 9.9°C (49.8 °F) in January 1955, which coincidentally was the same year snow fell in Chiang Rai.

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  3. Ok than. Before last week, all the reports of snow in Thailand were FAKE (or incorrect). True.
    I myself commented here regarding the NOT SNOW (soft hail indeed) pictures of 1955.
    But this time WAS DIFFERENT.
    Thai meteorologists said something incorrect 3 days ago

    http://bangkok.coconuts.co/2016/01/26/hold-snow-impossible-thailand-says-meteorologist

    It could have been justified saying so 1 week ago albeit “impossible” was still too strong

    This is the Doi Ang Khan 1500m of elevation ONE THOUSANDS METERS lower than the Doi Inthanon

    http://ogimet.com/cgi-bin/gsynres?ind=48302&decoded=yes&ndays=2&ano=2016&mes=01&day=27&hora=00

    So, are he still claiming that cold and cloud cover (and precipitations) is an impossible combination ?
    It happened this time ! And this was enough to have snow on the Inthanon.
    And more, I would say it’s almost impossible that it didn’t snow at all, it could have been intermitent, weak, mixed with pellets and some frozen rain (unlikely since no thermal inversions) but not snow at all…it would be unexplainable.
    I am very sad and disappointed by what that meteorologist say 3 days ago (AFTER THE EPISODE) because either he has no competence at all in meteorology or he is denying the evidence. Doi Ang Khan is an official TMD and also international WMO synoptical station. Its data doesn’t lie.
    We had that “impossible” combination this time ! Can he deny this ?

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    • Need photographic evidence of snowfall in Thailand. If the ‘snow’ does not accumulate on the trees but only on the ground then it is sleet or hail, not real snow. P.S. Where is Chang Ma and what is the altitude?..just curious!

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    • P.S. Chris

      There is virtually no question that snow has accumulated on Doi Inthanon today Jan. 26. Perhaps for the first time in centuries. Never before in recent cliamatological history has there been a situation like this with an intense Siberian high pressure system (up to an amazing 1066mb strength!) that retroraded southwest into SE Asia including Thai;and and Laos. But the kicker is that a stream of moisture from the Andaman Sea has overridden the cold air (from the southwest) and resulted in BOTH extreme cold AND moisture. Hence we have a very cold rainy day in northern Thailand. Chiang Mai has seen about half an inch of rainfall today with a temp spread of 10-12°C. With a gradient of 2°celcius per thousand feet (and no inversion process) the temperature at the peak of Doi Inthanon (many spellings) must be around -2°–3°C. That means snow, and a lot of it. I would estimate about 10 cm of snow on the summit today. If only someone had the balls to drive up the mountain early Wednesday (before the snow melts) or some pilot could report snow on the Thai mountain tops then we would have the proof that for the first time since at least the 17th century accumulated snow has fallen with the Thai borders. Trouble is that clouds will likely still encompass the peak throughout Wednesday, so someone must make the trip up the mountain to check it out firsthand. Probably extremely treacherous! The road will be ice covered for sure!

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      • Hallo Chris. Did you Google “snow Inthanon” and just come here ?
        Yes, that episode of 1955 was NOT snow but soft hail, it’s clear in the pictures and despite Jan 1955 saw tremendous low temperatures, lower minima than now in 2016, there was not a compact cloud cover with moisture to cause any snowfall. In fact, maximum temperatures at Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai etc were higher than past days’ max.
        Unfortunately TMD meteorologists are not competent , one of them said 3 days ago that snow “is impossible in Thailand because there is not a combination of cold temperatures and cloud cover” But there was THIS TIME ! Official TMD and WMO synoptical station of Doi Ang Khan located at 1500m recorded RAIN WITH 1.4c DEGREES (34F), so is this guy still claiming there was no cold+cloud cover ??? At 2500m that was snow for sure, given there were not thermal inversions, at very most mixed with ice grains,little snow pellets or iced rain, but we had ALL THE CONDITIONS to have falling flakes.

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        • Hi Max, Yes, I googled “snow in Thailand’ and found this conversation. I was hoping someone might report in on this conversation of witnessing some snow on Doi Inthanon on Jan. 26. But doesn’t look like that happened.

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    • I’d love it too Joseph, but sadly, not to put a downer on it, a lot of old people really suffer here when the temperature dips in certain parts of the country because they don’t have heating and access to proper clothes, blankets, etc. I was looking at some stats and a fair number of people pass away up North due to cold related illness each year.

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  6. I don’t know if it’s true,but the Thai letters below the picture said like “There were a tiny hail after raining and have something like snow,in 14 hours there were all around with snow,but 18 hours later the snow is disappear”

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  8. Snow is one of the reasons I skipped out of the US and headed to Thailand. There were many others of course, but I despise the time after the snow is finished falling. Sometimes weeks of slush and ice and cold biting winds…no thanks. I am much happier sweating versus shivering.

    Reply

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