Bangkok Weather Radar & Live Heat, Flood & Haze Map

Bangkok runs on a three-part seasonal cycle of hazards, and at almost any time of year one of them is in play. There's the brutal humid heat of the hot season, when the combination of high temperatures and heavy humidity becomes a genuine health risk; the monsoon, when relentless rain floods a low-lying, slowly sinking river-delta city; and the cool-season haze, when smoke from regional burning settles over the metropolis. Knowing which one is in play — and which layer to watch — is exactly what the live map helps with.

The heat that the humidity makes dangerous

In the hot season, roughly March through May, Bangkok turns punishing. Temperatures climb high, but the real danger is the humidity that comes with them. When the air is this saturated, sweat can't evaporate efficiently, and evaporation is how the body sheds heat. The result is that the "feels-like" temperature can reach hazardous levels even when the raw thermometer reading seems merely very hot.

This is the heart of why humid heat is so much more dangerous than dry heat: it isn't just uncomfortable, it can overwhelm the body's ability to cool itself. Bangkok is one of the clearest big-city examples of the principle, and it's why the heat here deserves to be taken as seriously as any storm. The wet-bulb guide explains the physiology in detail.

The monsoon and the floods

From around May through October, the southwest monsoon brings heavy, frequent rain to the region. Bangkok sits on a flat, low river delta barely above sea level — and is slowly sinking as groundwater is drawn down — so it has little natural capacity to shed that water quickly. Intense monsoon rain can overwhelm the city's drainage and canals and flood streets and neighbourhoods, and Bangkok has lived through major flood disasters. Managing the monsoon's water is one of the city's defining seasonal struggles, and the radar is the layer to watch through these months.

The cool-season haze

The third hazard arrives with the cooler, drier months, roughly December through April, and it's about the air. Pollution from traffic and industry is joined by smoke from widespread agricultural and forest burning across the region, and when the air is calm, it accumulates over the city. Fine-particle pollution (PM2.5) can climb into unhealthy ranges for weeks at a time, and air quality becomes one of the most-watched numbers in the city. It's a seasonal counterpart to the haze that affects much of Southeast Asia, the same drifting smoke that the smoke-travel guide describes.

Reading it on the live map

Bangkok's hazards take turns through the year, so the layer to lead with changes with the season:

• In the hot season, watch the heat. Turn on Temperature to gauge how dangerous the humid heat is becoming — remembering that humidity, not just the number, sets the real risk.
• In the monsoon, watch the rain. Switch to Radar to follow storms and see where flooding is most likely across the low delta.
• In the cool months, watch the air. Add the Air Quality layer to track the seasonal haze and how unhealthy the air has become.
• Connect the threads. The wet-bulb, air-quality and smoke-travel guides explain the heat danger, how to read the haze, and where the regional smoke comes from.

Temperature tells you when the heat is the threat, radar tells you when the floods are, and air quality tells you when the haze takes over. In a city that cycles through three very different dangers across the year, reading the right layer for the season is how you stay ahead of Bangkok's sky.