Floods In The Phrae Province, North Thailand
27 May 2006

Note: The area of coverage in this IKONOS image is approximately 2.5 km x 2.5 km.
The reduced resolution image on display has undergone compression and so does not represent the true resolution of the original satellite image.

This was an exceptionally early flood but the monsoon arrived very early in 2006 in Thailand. Intense and heavy rainfall started on 21 May giving rise to slope failures in the hills of northeastern Thailand and floods in the lower valleys. The maximum 24-hour rainfall exceeded 300 mm in places. The water is full of sediment, probably arriving from the eroded hills of the upper basin. A highway with traffic on it remains dry but the roadside trees are in water. Trees elsewhere stand isolated while floodwaters move round their trunks. The secondary roads are still partly under water, several days after the rainstorm. Water from the flooded fields is pouring back into the two canalized rivers, one in the centre of the image and the other towards the southwest, through several breaches bright in the sun.