Bangkok is used to absorbing the sudden afternoon downpours that inundate the city during the rainy season. Even streets in many central high-rise districts can briefly turn into rivers, with rats and cockroaches racing out of sewers and taking temporary refuge on trees and buildings as the subterranean world is flushed out.<\/p>\n
But every city has a breaking point, and this year rain fell so fast and so hard that whole neighbourhoods of the Thai capital have been transformed, not into rivers, but stagnant lakes. In parts of the city, roughly 300mm of rain \u2013 the equivalent of half a year of average rainfall in London \u2013 fell in about two days.<\/p>\n
A person wades through flood water in Lat Krabang district, Bangkok. Photograph: Rungroj Yongrit\/EPA<\/p>\n
About 40 people died in flood-related incidents, according to the government. A number of the deaths were from drowning and several from accidental electrocution. Thousands of people stayed in more than 230 shelters across the city, authorities said.<\/p>\n
Suleemas Kurangkul, a 73-year-old resident of a block of flats whose ground floor stairs are still under water, said last weekend\u2019s rain was not the usual evening storm but was constant, \u201clike all day, all night\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe water just kept rising,\u201d said Suleemas, whose flat is above the waterline on the second floor. By the time she and her neighbours received a mobile phone warning, it was too late, and the street-level water was waist-high.<\/p>\n
The 1970s Khlong Chan flat compound in north-east Bangkok where Suleemas lives has become a symbol of the disaster. Photos have been shared across Thailand<\/a> of the flats rising out of the brownish water, with the rooftops of parked cars barely peeking above the surface, although the authorities had managed to drain away the worst of it by Thursday.<\/p>\n Later in the week, during a brief respite in the rain, Suleemas said the water had receded somewhat. \u201cPeople are so happy to see the sunshine,\u201d she said. \u201cYet, the smell is getting stronger. So much debris and rubbish floating all over the place.\u201d<\/p>\n Built on a vast floodplain of the Chao Phraya River, Bangkok, a megacity of millions, relies on a network of muddy canals to drain water, as well as pumps and dikes. But concrete construction has destroyed much of the canal network, and the city is unable to cope.<\/p>\n The government has declared a flood disaster across all 50 of the city\u2019s districts. Some neighbourhoods have turned into dystopian scenes, with people using blow-up paddling pools or, in one case, a floating fridge, as boats to reach their homes. One man was arrested for riding a jetski<\/a> along a main road.<\/p>\n A resident uses a floating fridge as a boat. Photograph: Rungroj Yongrit\/EPA<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a lesson,\u201d said Chaleerat Chamrasporn, 55, a resident. \u201cThe kids are into doomsday-themed content, so now they can see what the \u2018end of the world\u2019 is actually like, or rather, that this is just the beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n Flooding has also disrupted Bangkok\u2019s main Suvarnabhumi airport, with about half \u2060of Thai Airways\u2019 workforce unable to report for work at one point this week, causing thousands of items of luggage \u200bto pile up and forcing flight \u200bcancellations. Many schools have closed, and with much of the capital in gridlock even people in less affected areas have been stuck at home.<\/p>\n Thailand\u2019s prime minister, Anutin Charnvirakul, told reporters that Bangkok\u2019s metropolitan area was still at risk from flood waters flowing in from \u200bthe north, and said a war room had \u200cbeen set up to monitor \u200cthe situation. Thailand\u2019s weather \u2060agency has forecast more \u200bheavy rain for next week.<\/p>\n People stand on benches on the flooded pavement in Ramkhamhaeng in Bangkok. Photograph: Lillian Suwanrumpha\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n It is part of a pattern that seems to be setting in this part of the world. South-east Asia has already seen a worsening of extreme floods, scientists say, a trend that is set to worsen as fossil fuel pollutants bake the planet further. Hot seas evaporate more water and warm air can hold more moisture, allowing downpours to crash down with far more force.<\/p>\n \u201cIn central Thailand, I can see from my maps, we have already seen a small but significant trend towards extreme rainfall,\u201d said Nikolaos Skliris, an ocean scientist at the University of Southampton who has studied<\/a> heavy rain in the region. \u201cIn the long-term, all models show this will be amplified \u2013 more rainfall, and more extreme rainfall.\u201d<\/p>\n It is too early for scientists to attribute these particular rains to climate breakdown without doing a study. They were caused by a low-pressure system that moved from an unusually warm South China Sea over Cambodia and Vietnam before getting stuck above Bangkok, which was fairly cool, data from Copernicus Climate Pulse showed.<\/p>\n The picture is complicated by the emergence of an abnormally strong El Ni\u00f1o, a cyclical weather pattern<\/a> that brings record heat and more violent extremes around the world. Its presence typically leads to drier summer conditions in south-east Asia but recent research suggests it still exacerbates days with extreme rainfall.<\/p>\n