Smoke, Smog, Dust 2018 Chiang Mai

[cerox]

Pakistan is number 1 now on AirVisual ranking, not Chiang Mai. Hopefully they burn more to win the battle ????

[vivid]

Wow....Samoeng hospital in the mountains near Chiang Mai city peaked at 1hr AQI 796 just now at 1000h.

Correction, it's above AQI 999.  Via PM10, not PM2.5.  ????

 

Yes, when the PM10 figures are higher than PM2.5, it generally means that the burning is pretty close.  In my experience with my country's heave haze in 2013 where the PM10 is much higher and is the responsible pollutant that's setting the AQI, it means that the fires are within 200km around it.  In Samoeng's case, probably less than 50km as the general CM city stations are not really picking it up much (just a little bit)

 

 

Edited March 29, 2019 by vivid

[vivid]

I really gotta go check out cmsally's CMU CCDC link.   ????

That's a 4-digit AQI index figure and 4-digit ug/m3 concentration figure.

 

That has gotta be the first in Chiang Mai.  Move over 2007, 2010, 2015 etc.  

[bkk6060]

This is a shot from BKK.

Just as a visual comparison.

 

 

Edited March 29, 2019 by bkk6060

[SamSanuk]

21 hours ago, Greenside said:

If anyone is still on the lookout for an Xiaomi air purifier, the Mi store at Promenada has the 2s and the Pro in stock today.  The prices are higher than Lazada, but not grey market so one can assume that service will be available if needed and you can have one working today.  

Boy, a little shout of ❤️. I went to Promenada, the ghost mall, and bought the 2s. 5900 baht. I can live with that. Plugged it in my little studio apartment, went from 185 to 26 in an hour.  Nice little machine, hope it holds up. 

 

Thank you for sharing the info. My hero for today.

 

ps- The M1 store didn’t open until Noon, instead of 11 am. The morning girl overslept. This is Thailand!

[JimGant]

39 minutes ago, SamSanuk said:

The M1 store didn’t open until Noon, instead of 11 am. The morning girl overslept. This is Thailand!

At Promenada, that's not normally noticed....

[Ustravelers]

My wife and I are supposed to be headed to Chiang mai on an award trip we won with my USA based company. Is this safe for American travelers? Everyone will be coming from Us and EU and reading this makes me quite worried. Any advice whether or not to take this trip would be helpful. Thank you!

[brommers]

Hi Ustravelers. I am a long term resident of CM and love being here. However this year has been a nightmare and it looks like it will last for some time, at least until the rains begin probably months from now.

 

If you are able to postpone your visit it would be a good decision. CM is well worth visiting when the air is breathable. But until then I would stay away.

[Greenside]

Don't worry about it.  You could have come at a better time of year but the last few days have seen some improvement in the air quality and it's likely things will continue to improve.  We all get a bit hysterical on this forum.

 

I don't think your nationality has any bearing on how you cope with the weather (just kidding).  Sure it's safe and if you're here at Songkran in a couple of weeks it'll be wet too!

Edited March 29, 2019 by Greenside

[jimgilly]

3 hours ago, Greenside said:

Don't worry about it.  You could have come at a better time of year but the last few days have seen some improvement in the air quality and it's likely things will continue to improve.  We all get a bit hysterical on this forum.

 

I don't think your nationality has any bearing on how you cope with the weather (just kidding).  Sure it's safe and if you're here at Songkran in a couple of weeks it'll be wet too!

What is wrong with you telling someone the air quality is safe when it is not? 

 

It's easy to see you're in the camp who downplays the seriousness of the horrific air pollution but you shouldn't mislead others into believing things are okay when they obviously are not.  

 

Keep breathing in the toxic air if you want but stop doing a serious disservice telling others it's not a problem when you should know that's a blatant lie.

[vivid]

Here's one guy's opinion.  And that video was done on 2018 12th of Feb.   And i remember 2016, 2017 wasn't bad at all.  

 

Another issue is that this year it's been very volatile.....   Mostly reds on aqicn would fine.  The few days prior to last weekend in CM city it was somewhat ok, quite a lot of reds, some purple.  Then it was extremely bad on from Fri to Mon, particularly on Sat/Sun.  

 

 If it's a very important event and there is a needed for an extended time to be outdoors, then come equipped with at least 1 x N95 per day.   In fact, proper respirators like 3M 6000 or 7000 series with cartridges would be better for extended wear in terms of comfort if there is a need to also wear it in the hotel (the levels would be lower than external depending on the filter grade used in the AHU but it probably would not be lower than 50%).

 

Just this morning it got to over AQI 999 in Samoeng, albeit a brief one. 

 

 

 

Edited March 29, 2019 by vivid

[vivid]

5 hours ago, vivid said:

Another issue is that this year it's been very volatile.....   Mostly reds on aqicn would fine.  The few days prior to last weekend in CM city it was somewhat ok, quite a lot of reds, some purple.  Then it was extremely bad kast weekend from Fri to Mon, particularly on Sat/Sun.  

 

 

Past few days have seen improvements.  That is true, there were even periods of orange in Chiang Mai, situation normal.

 

But like i just said about the situation being very volatile, BAM.  And it's still rising.  Chiang Rai leading the pack at 628.

 

HPC 1 in Chiang Mai.

 

Edited March 29, 2019 by vivid

[cmsally]

 

Wat Chan and Samoeng are consistently getting higher readings. The fairly recent road building, presumably means more land being cleared for large scale agriculture. Maybe someone who has been that way recently would like to comment.

[roo860]

Don't worry about it.  You could have come at a better time of year but the last few days have seen some improvement in the air quality and it's likely things will continue to improve.  We all get a bit hysterical on this forum.
 
I don't think your nationality has any bearing on how you cope with the weather (just kidding).  Sure it's safe and if you're here at Songkran in a couple of weeks it'll be wet too!

'We all get a bit hysterical', do we? Don't talk nonsense, there's no bloody improvement.

Sent from my SM-G920F using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

[vivid]

Chiang Mai - Samoeng @ AQI 798, Mae Taeng @ 617 .    Koh Chang in CR @ 710.

 

Edited March 30, 2019 by vivid

[vivid]

14 hours ago, Ustravelers said:

My wife and I are supposed to be headed to Chiang mai on an award trip we won with my USA based company. Is this safe for American travelers? Everyone will be coming from Us and EU and reading this makes me quite worried. Any advice whether or not to take this trip would be helpful. Thank you!

 

Found some videos of 2015, for your reference. 

CHIANG MAI Mar 2015: -- CHIANG MAI reported the worst smog this year yesterday morning with tiny particles at 253 micrograms per cubic metre at an air station near Yupparat Wittayalai School, while a City Hall station recorded 247 mg per cu/m.

 

 

 

 

 

OK here's one for 2019.  The video most probably looks way better than the situation in reality due to how a wide angle lens + video processing in contrast and your LED screens work.  Check out the colour of the sun and the colour of sunlight on the ground.  Folks in another thread were able to capture sunspots on the sun with their cameras. 

 

Edited March 30, 2019 by vivid

[vivid]

I still remember this one in 2015.

 

Are there any tanker planes/helicopters with bambi buckets in the air this year?

 

 

[canopy]

18 minutes ago, vivid said:

Are there any tanker planes/helicopters with bambi buckets in the air this year?

Seems the opposite is taking place. Something I learned this year is the forestry department deliberately lights fires this time of years in a procedure they call fuel management.

 

[vivid]

Going for the peak record in Chiang Mai city again.  2019 Mar record was 1hr AQI 682 last weekend.

 

 

[Ustravelers]

thank you Vivid, very helpful information. I think we will monitor this and see what our company policy will be next week before we plan to leave on Friday. Right now, it doesn’t look appealing at all, but hopefully things will get better over the next few days. 

[Bill97]

Like about smoking two packs a day today?


Sent from my iPod touch using Thaivisa Connect

[Greenside]

2 hours ago, roo860 said:

'We all get a bit hysterical', do we? Don't talk nonsense, there's no bloody improvement.

Sent from my SM-G920F using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app
 

I do think we go over the top sometimes (not in terms of how bad it is or how ineffectively the problem is addressed, more about coping with living in it) but today's miserable air quality shows I was, shall we say, a little over optimistic about it improving.  

[Marcous]

[Marcous]

The above is from an app called 'Shit, I Smoke! '

 

 

[Dante99]

2 hours ago, canopy said:

Seems the opposite is taking place. Something I learned this year is the forestry department deliberately lights fires this time of years in a procedure they call fuel management.

 

Please provide a reference/source information for that.  It is a bit hard to believe.

[bkk6060]

20 mins ago at CM airport.

[vivid]

1hr AQI 793 for HPC 1 station in Chiang Mai city 1000h.

Samoeng hit AQI 999 just now again? Didnt get to capture it. Samoeng is AQI 904 now.

 

 

New record set for CM city.

 

Edited March 30, 2019 by vivid

[cmsally]

[Trujillo]

What does the government have to say about this massive own-goal? 

[vivid]

New record again for Chiang Mai city. Set at 1100h