Temperatures in Thai North continue dropping

CHIANG MAI, Dec 23 (TNA) - Temperatures in Thailand’s northern provinces continued falling early Sunday as poor people in Chiang Mai province are suffering from severe cold and are in need of more blankets. As tourism business in the region is booming due to influx of tourists to enjoy cold spell, Chiang Mai governor Thanin Supasaen ordered 11 district officers to speed on assisting the poor suffering from the severe cold. Initially, more than 90,000 households in the province are in need of over 198,000 blankets while provincial officials have been able to distribute slightly more than 4,000 blankets so far. Chiang Mai officials have urged charitable organisations to donate blankets and warm clothing to the poor in the province. Mr. Thanin quoted an announcement issued by the Meteorological Department as saying that temperature in Chiang Mai is expected to continue falling between 4 to 7 Celsius later this week. He urged the people as well as tourists visiting the province to wear warm clothes to protect themselves from the current cold spell which is covering the province. In Chiang Mai’s neighbouring province of Lamphun, a thick fog covered the city heavily this morning, causing problems to tourists visiting beautiful temples. Motorists had to open headlight and drove carefully while travelling. Longan growers are being hard hit as the trees are covered with dews as temperature dropped to 15 Celsius while it was worse on mountainous areas as it fell to between 6 to 10 Celsius, damaging farm products. In the northernmost province of Chiang Rai, the temperature this morning dropped to about 13 Celsius. Several tourism destinations, including the famous mountain Phu Chi Fa, were packed with tourists enjoying the cold and sea of fog before dawn. (TNA)