Tropical Storm Over Thai Runway - a photo on Flickriver

Tropical Storm Over Thai Runway

            Surat Thani airport was having one of those days that made you question the sanity of anyone who decided to build an airport in the first place. It was the inaugural day of the rainy season, a time when the sky seemed to take great delight in trying to drown everything in sight, just to remind people who was really in charge around here.

The clouds had gathered with the kind of dark, ominous enthusiasm usually reserved for villains in overly dramatic soap operas. They loomed overhead, rumbling menacingly, as if auditioning for the role of "Most Theatrically Evil Weather Formation." And, as if on cue, the rain began to fall, not in the polite, drizzly manner you might hope for, but in the torrential, cats-and-dogs style that made you wonder if someone had misplaced an ocean.

Amidst this meteorological melodrama, a small battalion of airport workers could be seen sloshing about the runway, clad in rain gear that did little to keep them dry but did make them look like determined, albeit slightly soggy, action figures. Their mission: to prepare a gleaming aircraft for takeoff. The plane, for its part, stood there with the resigned air of a creature that knows it’s about to be dragged out of its cozy hangar and thrown into the wet fray.

As the workers bustled around, performing their tasks with the sort of grim determination one might expect from people who had drawn the short straw, the plane itself seemed to exude a kind of stoic patience. It was, after all, just a machine, and machines are known for their lack of opinion on the matter of weather.

Meanwhile, the atmosphere at Surat Thani airport had taken on an almost surreal quality. The rain hammered down with the enthusiasm of a hyperactive drummer, the clouds swirled in their malevolent ballet, and the ground crew moved like industrious ants in high-vis jackets. 

And so, as the first flight of the rainy season prepared for departure, there was a distinct sense of adventure in the air. Not the grand, heroic kind of adventure, mind you, but the sort that involved hoping the plane would take off before the runway turned into a small lake.

Taken in: Thailand / Bangkok / Lak Si (show map)

Taken on: May 22, 2024

Tags:

airport

airplane

aircraft

suratthani

aerospace

storm

monsoon

rain

'rain season'

cloud « less

Groups appears in: • Airplanes and Airports

Camera: samsung SM-G965U1, f/2.4, 1/50 sec, 4.3mm, ISO 64 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	samsung SM-G965U1
Aperture:	f/2.4
Exposure Time:	0.02 sec (1/50)
Focal Length:	4.3mm
ISO:	64
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	No Flash
Exposure Program:	Program AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Center-weighted average
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	G965U1UES9FVD1
Show full info

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