Kata Noi is a beach on the southwestern side of the island of Phuket

Phuket Province

Phuket , formerly known as Thalang and, in Western sources, Junk Ceylon , is one of the southern provinces of Thailand...

 in Thailand

Thailand

Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...

. It prolongs the Kata Beach to the south.

The beach is bordered to the north by the Mon Tri's Villa Royale resort, and most of the beachfront is occupied by the resort of Kata Thani.

2004 earthquake and tsunami

On December 26, 2004, the area felt a mild earthquake around 07:59 local time, which later turned out to be the repercussion of the massive 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake

2004 Indian Ocean earthquake

The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake was an undersea megathrust earthquake that occurred at 00:58:53 UTC on Sunday, December 26, 2004, with an epicentre off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. The quake itself is known by the scientific community as the Sumatra-Andaman earthquake...

 occurring at that time near Sumatra

Sumatra

Sumatra is an island in western Indonesia, westernmost of the Sunda Islands. It is the largest island entirely in Indonesia , and the sixth largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 with a population of 50,365,538...

. Few people actually felt the earthquake, and no alarm was given, apart for casual radio broadcasts on the local Thai radio.

First tsunami

Around 09:30 AM, as about 20 people were playing on the beach or bathing, the sea started to retreat by about 100 meters within the space of about 5 minutes. A few people who were bathing, seeing the water retreating around them were left standing, puzzled. Asked about the phenomenon, Thai vendors on the beach were as puzzled as tourists, having never seen such a thing.

As the sea was staying at a very low level, quite far from the beach, people started to see that some fish had been left stranded in some pools of water, and started to play with the fish for possibly 5 to 10 minutes. Suddenly, without a warning and any visible sign of an approaching danger, the sea started to rise again, inducing everyone to run to the higher part of the beach. The water continued to rise swiftly, although not as fast as the people running. Eventually the sea drowned the totality of the beach, until it stopped almost exactly at the top of the one meter cement wall lining the beach. People, who were in the sea up to the waist, were able to climb over the small wall into the safety of the gardens of the Kata Thani resort, although they often left their belonging on the beach chairs in haste.

The sea stayed at its high level for possibly 10 to 15 minutes. Some tourists actually went back in the high water to fetch their floating belongings. The sea started to retreat again slowly, dragging parasols, beach chairs etc... with the receding water.

Retreat-and-rise cycle

The retreat-and-rise cycle was repeated several times that day, a full cycle taking between 30 to 45 minutes between each peak.

The third wave was the largest. It overran the small wall lining the beach, flowed into the gardens of the Kata Thani hotel and almost instantly smashed into and destroyed the front rooms of the hotel, also inundating the central restaurant. The area at the southern end of the beach was most badly hit, and the beach restaurant was swept out to sea.

Casualties

There were some injuries, but no fatalities at Kata Noi on the occasion of the tsunami. The waters receded and rose rather swiftly, but, owing to the steepness of the beach, remained contained and did not generate rushing breaking waves as on flatter beaches such as Patong Beach

Patong Beach

Patong Beach refers to a beach on Phuket's west coast, and to the town adjoining it. It is the main tourist resort in Phuket. It also contains an important center of Phuket's nightlife and is the center of inexpensive shopping on the island. The beach became popular with Western tourists,...

 or Khao Lak

Khao Lak

Khao Lak ) is a seaside resort located in the Takua Pa district in the Phang Nga province, Thailand and popular as a departure point for liveaboard scuba diving trips to the Similan Islands....

.

Luckily, nobody died in this area and it was fortunate that it was on higher ground and that there were only 20 people on the beach.

This past year one could see that Kata Noi beaches returned to their natural beauty.

Climate

The island of Phuket has a tropical monsoon climate

Tropical monsoon climate

Tropical monsoon climate, occasionally also known as a tropical wet climate or tropical monsoon and trade-wind littoral climate in climate classification, is a relatively rare type of climate that corresponds to the Köppen climate classification category "Am."Tropical monsoon climates have monthly...

with a dry season from November to April and a rainy season from May to October. Average temperatures are consistent year-round. Average highs range from 29 °C (84.2 °F) to 33 °C (91.4 °F); average lows range from 23 °C (73.4 °F) to 26 °C (78.8 °F).