Also impacting Thailand’s rice crop.
The unusually long cold spell across the North, Northeast and Central regions has killed 63 people in the past three months and Bangkok suffered its coldest night in three decades on Thursday, , when the temperature fell to 15.6 degrees Celsius.
Sophon Mekthon, director general of the Disease Control Department, said on Thursday that the 63 fatalities were reported in 27 provinces between Oct 22, 2013 and Jan 19, 2014.
Forty-five provinces have been declared cold-spell disaster zones and more than 25 million people have been affected by the cold weather.
This year’s cool season has been the longest for a decade, lasting almost three months, said Songkram Aksorn, deputy director general of the Meteorological Department.
Impacting Thailand’s rice crop
“The new rice harvest coming in is not of good quality, because it has flowered too early with this cool season’s unusually low temperatures,” said Vichai Sripraset, honorary president of the Thai Rice Exporters Association.
“When temperatures are low, fertilisation is bad, and then you get a lot of empty rice husks,” he explained.
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Coldest-weather-in-decades-hits-Thailand-30224972.html
Thanks to Weilian Lee and Argiris Diamantis for these links