Temperatures are expected to surpass 40 degrees Celsius in several provinces next week, as tomorrow the “heat index” is expected to reach 48.1 degrees in Bangkok and 51.4 degrees in Chon Buri, according to Somkuan Tonjan, head of the Central Weather Forecast Division of the Meteorological Department.

The Heat index, also known as the apparent temperature. is what the temperature feels like to the human body when relative humidity is combined with the air temperature. This has important implications for the body’s comfort.

Two weeks after Thailand officially entered the dry season, Somkuan said that temperature has already reached 39 degrees or 40 degrees in some provinces and is forecast to reach 41 degrees in Lampang, Uthai and Lop Buri provinces next week.

Temperature is expected to reach 44.5 degrees in some provinces before the end of the hot season in mid-May, he said.

Today’s heat indices are:

• 9 degrees in the northern region
• 1 degree in the central region
• 6 degrees in the eastern region
• 5 degrees in the southern region

Heat indices for tomorrow are forecast as:

• 6 degrees in the northern region
• 4 degrees in the north-eastern region
• 1 degree in the central region
• 1 degree in the eastern province of Chon Buri
• 3 degrees in the southern region

Meanwhile, Dr. Thon Thamrongnawasawat, vice dean of the Faculty of Fisheries at Kasetsart University, warned today that corals in the Gulf and the Andaman Sea are in risk of massive bleaching in the next three months, as the sea temperature has risen by 1 degree this year, compared to last year.

Real-time sea temperature measured at the station in Si Racha has already exceeded 31 degrees, which is the warmest ever recorded, he said.

He also said that coral bleaching has already affected corals in the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, covering a distance of 1,000 km.

He said seagrass and the ecological system will also be harmed, as well as plankton blooms, which will affect fishing, aqua culture and tourism.