Smoke, Smog, Dust 2018 Chiang Mai

[SoilSpoil]

(Don't) run to the hills.

[vivid]

1 hour ago, DonDoRondo said:

Like yesterday afternoon the wind is picking up a bit here in Santitham.  Maybe be some of

it will get blown away again.

Yeah....can see beaufort scale 2 on most stations in CM, some beaufort scale 3.  

 

 

[vivid]

Read that there are some thunderstorms in NE and N Thailand due to interaction with a high pressure air mass from China, will last till Wed.

 

Hope that'll help the situation.

 

Extended brown/purple conditions are really too much for the poor kids, elderly, sick....... unless they spend their lives totally in an air purifier filtered + AC environment and N95 masks when they are going out. 

[cerox]

Everything back to red, disappointing... Wanted to see more.

[vivid]

55 minutes ago, cerox said:

Everything back to red, disappointing... Wanted to see more.

PM2.5 24-hr moving averages of > 400 ug/m3 (400 ug/m3 = AQI 430) for some Chiang Mai stations and max 1-hr peaks of up to AQI 682 for Chiang Mai and AQI 700+/800+ for other stations.  Those figures are records, and I think that's certainly more than enough.  ????

 

I can't find previous years news articles, the info is also in the previous years smoke, smog and dust threads like the 2015 one (Super el nino year), but i believe the highest 24-hr moving average concentration ever recorded has been completely smashed. 

 

Previously all the news outlets would be reporting that and there would be lots of youtube vids showing hospital scenes etc, but unfortunately an suprisingly i can't find much info this time round?   Anyway i am not a thai, farang, i'm not even in Thailand, so i don't really know what is happening there on the ground why this is so and i rely only on data based on websites/news outlets.  I don't even know what is thailand's social media scene/fav platform.

 

For those interested to see the effects and scenes of even higher levels, just go to youtube to search for "kabut asap", or "雾霾".  There you'd chance upon > AQI 2000 iirc it hit AQI 2300-2400 for Indonesia and > AQI 1300 for China, so bad that you actually see the hospital wards being filled with very visible smoke, you can't even fly out because all flights are grounded and even land travel becomes treacherous as you'd have to travel > 1000km to escape from it all, impossible for those living near the poverty line as well.

 And yes, people die from that, esp heart-wrenching when you see infants/toddlers/young kids/elderly die especially (stories are on youtube).   Not going to post that else i'd go off-topic.

 

 

[vivid]

Wrong thread, deleted.

[wolfmuc]

7 hours ago, vivid said:

Read that there are some thunderstorms in NE and N Thailand due to interaction with a high pressure air mass from China, will last till Wed.

 

Hope that'll help the situation.

 

Extended brown/purple conditions are really too much for the poor kids, elderly, sick....... unless they spend their lives totally in an air purifier filtered + AC environment and N95 masks when they are going out. 

I hope in the CM-area it's better now.

Here in Phrae much better than before:

But I'm afraid, these thunderstorms will not travel too much north:

https://www.goes.noaa.gov/dml/jma/nhem/wpac/rb.html

 

[HaleySabai]

definitely

8 hours ago, vivid said:

Extended brown/purple conditions are really too much for the poor kids, elderly, sick....... unless they spend their lives totally in an air purifier filtered + AC environment and N95 masks when they are going out. 

Yup, that's exactly what we have been doing now for...mmm let me count the X's on the wall,ya...we have just entered our 3rd week. The kids (2yrs+10yrs) are showing some signs of cabin-fever,but no signs of sickness or basic negative effects from the external air pollution.

Interesting that the indoor AQ seems to hold up in the 100+,200+,300+ levels ,our house in not big and its well insulated.But a few days ago we hit the high of 469 and the indoor AQ was definitely degrading.I moved everyone into the bedroom and sealed that up running the AP + AC and it was o.k ,lucky it subsided and returned to the low 300's.

 

I can't imagine 1300 or 2000+....and not being able to protect yourself from that!!

I've lived in CM since 2005 and have not experienced anything even close to this year. Last March was "bad" but we still didn't exceed 180 in our area (Mae Rim),now after what we have been through I walk outside into 150-180 and It seems like its time for a jog!

I'm adamant to NOT spend another March in CM and put my family through this rubbish.

[vivid]

36 minutes ago, HaleySabai said:

definitely

Yup, that's exactly what we have been doing now for...mmm let me count the X's on the wall,ya...we have just entered our 3rd week. The kids (2yrs+10yrs) are showing some signs of cabin-fever,but no signs of sickness or basic negative effects from the external air pollution.

Interesting that the indoor AQ seems to hold up in the 100+,200+,300+ levels ,our house in not big and its well insulated.But a few days ago we hit the high of 469 and the indoor AQ was definitely degrading.I moved everyone into the bedroom and sealed that up running the AP + AC and it was o.k ,lucky it subsided and returned to the low 300's.

 

I can't imagine 1300 or 2000+....and not being able to protect yourself from that!!

I've lived in CM since 2005 and have not experienced anything even close to this year. Last March was "bad" but we still didn't exceed 180 in our area (Mae Rim),now after what we have been through I walk outside into 150-180 and It seems like its time for a jog!

I'm adamant to NOT spend another March in CM and put my family through this rubbish.

 

Yeah, and it's not good to be cooped up for too long in the house/room esp with very little ventilation.   Theorectically, If you have a very nicely sealed house, external can get to extremely high levels and internal air quality can be maintained nicely with just a small air purifier of about 300 m3/hr no issue at all. 

 

However, the reality is very different.

I have a CO2 meter and in a small 3 x 4m room with AC switched on, it can easily surpass 2000ppm after just 1 hr, and if not for the door gap at the bottom letting a wee bit of cold air out due to the AC then it might even hit 3000ppm.   I realised that to be a big contributing source of morning/early afternoon headaches.   My primary issue with haze is also due to headaches.  Same for my wife too, hers is migrane which is even worse. External CO2 levels is 400ppm.  Anything > 1200ppm and 8hrs is starting to get me headaches. 

 

 

A low-level headache sounds pretty harmless right?  Not if you have to continuously take paracetamol for that due to extended bouts of haze and/or due to CO2 levels, even at low doses like 2 x 2 times daily.   My wife has to take anything from naproxen sodium all the way to Tramadol + aided with lots of caffeine for her migranes.  ????

 

That is even with the help of the air purifiers and N95 masks (even the valved versions).   Coz like i said there is the side-effects risk with raised CO2 concentration over extended periods.   In fact, N95s are not really recommended for (1) pregnant women in their late second and 3rd trimester due to their reduced lung capacity  (2) COPD, lung disease suffers (3) elderly 

 

So, you'd still need to keep the windows very slightly opened for that air exchange in the air, and that needs to be countered with an increase in air filtration CFM or m3/hr.  I have practical experience with my CO2 meter that just a very small 5mm gap per room is more than sufficient, as long as you feel that there is a wee bit of wind coming through and that'd be fine.   If external conditions are windless, then maybe you'd need 10mm, coz with the air conditioning working and having a temperature differential bt internal vs external, there should be some air movement through the gaps.

 

Though i am not sure if that's the case in CM or northern thailand coz the nights there get pretty cool and you guys might not operate air-conditioning (no air movement then esp if it's windless)?   But you still get the general idea..... 

[vivid]

[vivid]

BTW it seems that the AQI readings are varying quite a fair bit, there are red colour and then there are brown colour peaking over 400.   

 

The smoke conditions might be very localised, as someone also pointed out previously.

 

So it might show AQI 400 on aqicn, and while you are just 2km away it might be lower than that.  Or like someone mentioned, his meter was showing peaks of AQI 750 while on the website it's just under AQI 600.   Also cmsally was showing another website showing AQI 740 and PM2.5 630 ug/m3 while aqicn is a bit lower at AQI 500+.    

 

So i guess it varies quite a bit.

[vivid]

Wow......still in Chiang Mai province.  Within Chiang Mai city's outer ring road, maxed out around AQI 410 i think.

Winds have picked up in the past 2 hours for Chiang Mai, levels dropping.

 

[canthai55]

No one here spent a summer in Northern Canada during a bad fire season I would bet ...

Month after month - visibility less than 1 Km - until the snow comes

Cars, yards, ditches covered with ash. 

[canopy]

Hardly relevant. In Thailand there are countless deliberate, unnecessary fires that are lit religiously every single year by the same people at the same times denying everyone living in the countryside from ever being able to enjoy a breath of fresh air.

 

[canthai55]

12 minutes ago, canopy said:

Hardly relevant.

You say ...

Look at the threads whining about the smoke.

Just giving a for instance.

U ain't seen nuttin' yet

[vivid]

Well of coz there always will be  "One mountain is higher than another mountain." Meaning: If you think you are good, there's always somebody else who's better.

 

Like i posted before, it's AQI 2400 thereabouts in Kalimantan 2015, AQI 4000 in 1997 and the haze actually reached Southern Thailand (purple colour AQI 200+ no less), Vietnam and even al the way to the West in Madagascar stretching to Guam in the Pacific ocean ????, making all other forest fires look like child's play.     If we expand things a bit, how about 13000 ug/m3 PM10 and PM2.5 for western china sandstorms where you can barely see your own hands and every single breathe is like cutting up your lungs?  

 

I would not recommend anyone shooting your own foot with a 7.62 and 50BMG to see which one is more painful.

[vivid]

[icare999]

On 24 March 2019 at 8:03 AM, motdaeng said:

- with 140 µg/m3, there seems to be something wrong ..

- did you check the filter, is it correct installed?

- to get better results you also need to improve the sealing of your windows and your inside doors,

it will make a big different. with the high outside level of pm2.5, before i hardly got my rooms under 15 µg/m3

if using the sleep mode (very quiet).

- now in the bedrooms (20 m2) i do get about 7 µg/m3 (pm2.5), and this in the sleep mode from a 

sharp air purifier (for 24m2) . and this with outside air about 180 - 220 µg/m3!!

Mi s2 is useless unless runnign at top fan spped and then it changes after 1-3 hours to automatic so useless apart from just getting levil down quickly at full fan speed which is also very noisy its fairly cheap but your better off just making your own google DYI or mae sure you get one where you can adjust fan speed and it stays on that speed i wish id not obught 2 of them and pasid insteasd double for a proper one 

[icare999]

On 24 March 2019 at 9:21 AM, motdaeng said:

Maybe this video helps ... i've tested (at the same time) four different models / brands of pm2.5 meters.
all had slightly different results (about 5 to a maximum of 20%). but on a low level of pm2.5, all had the similar level of pm2.5!

 

 

dont buy its fine when running full fan speed and will then clean air very quickly but problem is it goes to auto mode automatically after 1-2 hours and then its not a lot of good at full fan speed its also very noisy 

[vivid]

4 hours ago, icare999 said:

Mi s2 is useless unless runnign at top fan spped and then it changes after 1-3 hours to automatic so useless apart from just getting levil down quickly at full fan speed which is also very noisy its fairly cheap but your better off just making your own google DYI or mae sure you get one where you can adjust fan speed and it stays on that speed i wish id not obught 2 of them and pasid insteasd double for a proper one 

Bro, you can download the app and i believe you can set the fan speed manually then, it's a fan speed slider on the app and then you can set as many speeds as you want.   I don't have the Xiaomi though, so i am not sure if it kicks into auto for that after a period of time as well.

[motdaeng]

6 hours ago, icare999 said:

Mi s2 is useless unless runnign at top fan spped and then it changes after 1-3 hours to automatic so useless apart from just getting levil down quickly at full fan speed which is also very noisy its fairly cheap but your better off just making your own google DYI or mae sure you get one where you can adjust fan speed and it stays on that speed i wish id not obught 2 of them and pasid insteasd double for a proper one 

have a look at this, it explains a way to go around the auto mode ...

 

 

[bubba]

Since we are on the topic of the app, and it appears that it is indeed working for some. Sorry for reposting this from another thread, but:

 

I just installed a new 2s yesterday and it is working well, at least according to the display on the unit. AQI outside from a nearby station (Chiang Mai) shows 234 at the moment and the 2s unit in the bedroom is showing 12.

 

But here is my problem: I cannot get the Mi Home iOS app to work. It is properly installed and connected to the 2s; however, when I access the 2s, I get "failed to initialize device (7)". Having searched this issue, I found many others have the same problem and some workarounds were suggested, but none of those have resolved my issue.

 

Has anyone else seen this problem and found a solution?

[Greenside]

You tried changing the server location to Mainland China?

[vivid]

Looks like the wind is helping things out.  The fires are still burning though.  

Hope the winds will continue.

 

[bubba]

On 3/27/2019 at 2:12 PM, Greenside said:

You tried changing the server location to Mainland China?

Really appreciate the tip, greenside! I changed the region to China on my iOS app, reset and re-paired the 2s and yes, the app now works. Funny thing is that my userid, which was my phone number, got changed to a different number that looks like a phone number in Queensland, Australia. 

 

I am wondering why Xiaomi makes this so complicated.

[Greenside]

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.  

[vivid]

Getting nasty again.

 

[cmsally]

Every morning has been high in Samoeng, even when the air quality has generally been better. Seems to suggest they burn around Samoeng every night.

[cmsally]

Maybe Samoeng went off the scale ??

 

[cmsally]