{"id":287739,"date":"2026-02-17T04:34:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T04:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/287739\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T04:34:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T04:34:08","slug":"el-nino-2026-could-arrive-early-raising-thailands-heatwave-risk-from-march-to-may","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/287739\/","title":{"rendered":"El Ni\u00f1o 2026 could arrive early, raising Thailand\u2019s heatwave risk from March to May"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#13;<br \/>\nFebruary outlook and key impacts<\/p>\n<p>He noted that overall rainfall in February 2026 remains close to the long-term average, suggesting this year\u2019s dry season may not be unusually severe, but said water management must still be planned carefully.<\/p>\n<p>Dr Witsanu warned that higher temperatures could increase health risks, energy costs, and water demand, while dry spells could affect agricultural output, farm incomes, and long-term food security.<\/p>\n<p>From a resource economics perspective, he said advance planning for water allocation is essential\u2014covering water storage, irrigation management, and adjusting crop plans to fit increasingly variable conditions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThailand should prepare for heat and drought from today, and keep monitoring forecasts closely. New models are becoming more accurate and can update their projections at any time,\u201d he said, adding that planning to ensure sufficient water through next year is crucial and that all sectors should follow the situation closely in an era of climate disruption.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"&#13; February outlook and key impacts He noted that overall rainfall in February 2026 remains close to the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":287740,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[251,390,23436,11035,273,25926,111,139,69,147,4998],"class_list":{"0":"post-287739","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-climate-change","10":"tag-drought","11":"tag-el-nino","12":"tag-environment","13":"tag-heat-wave","14":"tag-new-zealand","15":"tag-newzealand","16":"tag-nz","17":"tag-science","18":"tag-weather"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=287739"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287739\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/287740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}