Plan Trip
Thailand flood & travel safety
Thailand's rainy season produces both routine afternoon downpours and genuine flooding, and the difference matters to a trip. Below are the warnings currently published by the Thai Meteorological Department, then the agencies to check for the things a weather warning does not cover — river levels, observed flood extent, highways, trains and emergency help.
Current warnings
Read from the Thai Meteorological Department's public CAP feed, with each bulletin's own publication time. Refreshed at most every 30 minutes, so treat the timestamp as the authority, not this page.
Loading current bulletins…
What this page is not
It is not a confirmation that any location or route is safe. Three different kinds of information get confused in flood season: a weather warning is a forecast for a broad region, a satellite flood extent is where water was observed at the time of a satellite pass, and a road closure is a decision made by a roads authority. None of the three substitutes for the others, and the absence of a reported closure is not evidence that a road is passable.
Official sources
Thai Meteorological Department (opens in a new window)
กรมอุตุนิยมวิทยา
Warnings and heavy-rain forecasts. This is the feed the bulletins above come from.
tmd.go.th ↗
ThaiWater (opens in a new window)
คลังข้อมูลน้ำแห่งชาติ
Rainfall, river levels and reservoir data — the observations behind a flood, rather than a forecast of one.
thaiwater.net ↗
GISTDA disaster platform (opens in a new window)
แผนที่ภัยพิบัติ GISTDA
Satellite-observed flood extent. It shows where water was detected at the time of the pass — not whether a particular road through that area is passable.
disaster.gistda.or.th ↗
Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (opens in a new window)
กรมป้องกันและบรรเทาสาธารณภัย
Official disaster declarations, assistance and provincial notices.
disaster.go.th ↗
Department of Highways (opens in a new window)
กรมทางหลวง
Highway conditions and closures. Check the specific route number you intend to drive.
doh.go.th ↗
State Railway of Thailand (opens in a new window)
การรถไฟแห่งประเทศไทย
Train service announcements, which are often the first confirmation that a southern line is cut.
railway.co.th ↗
If flooding affects your trip
- Follow local evacuation instructions, and move away from rising water rather than waiting to see how high it gets.
- Do not drive, ride or walk through floodwater. Depth is unreadable from the surface and the road under it may be gone.
- Confirm with your hotel and your transport operator before you set off. A province-wide warning does not mean every road is closed, and no warning does not mean every road is open.
- Keep your phone charged and tell someone where you are going.
Emergency numbers
These are national short codes and generally need a Thai mobile connection. 1155 has English-speaking operators; the others may not.
Which roads have flooded before
The Department of Rural Roads publishes an archive of flooding on the rural network: 2,244 road sections, by km range, across six fiscal years. It is on the map as an optional Flood history layer — how often a section has flooded, how deep, and how long it took to reopen.
It is history, not today. A marked section is not flooded now, an unmarked road is not confirmed clear, and national highways are not in it at all — the Department of Highways publishes no equivalent open data. For current conditions, use the warnings above and the agencies listed.
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