“So how about that weather…” is probably a good signal that there’s not much else to talk about in a conversation. Unless you’ve got 23-year-record snowfall in the San Juan mountains like Durango has, with the passes closed more than in recent years due to avalanche danger and heavy accumulation of snow.

Here in Thailand we aren’t experiencing the heavy snows that came late to southwest Colorado, but we can tell you one thing: our solar gain in Durango is the worst in the six years we’ve had panels on the condo roof. Those spikes in the graph above are normal solar gain days in January, and we use about 4Kw a day even when we’re traveling.  With just over 100 Kw solar for the month we’ll have our first ever (since the panel’s were installed) electrical usage charge.  Fortunately, this anomaly should be reversed in the remaining 11 months.

We also would like to bury the lead, in the fact that the Dry Season hasn’t yet come to Thailand as we’d expected.  The annual wind change over the Thailand peninsula from Easterly to Westerly traditionally happens in early December. As of this date in late January, that wind shift hasn’t happened and the rainy season persists.

It’s still plenty warm, which is one of the characteristic “snow bird” requirements – warm, cheap.  We’ll just have to add “dry” to that list in the future.  Riding, whether it’s bicycle or scooter, in the rain has become normal, just not desirable.  I’ve only missed a couple of cycling days in these two months, and 20-Baht rain slickers keep us plenty dry on the daily scooter runs for supplies and nourishment.