Smoke, Smog, Dust 2018 Chiang Mai

[thaivisa63]

18 hours ago, jimgilly said:

If anyone wants an additional definition to the word stupidity it should be people that live in CM that stick around during off the chart levels of air pollution and think it won't have an impact on their health.  You people are really amazing, but not in a good way. 

 

So keep the posts going on what the current levels are, where can you buy an air purifier, etc etc. as none of this really matters.  Many of you are already screwed by your inaction to get out when you could have so just stay put where you are at.  The world is overpopulated already so this may be one way of reducing the herd and many of you obviously have a herd mentality.  Final post on this and anything else with the CM forum as you people just don't get it.

 

Can you understand some people dont really have a choice ? And where do you read about people here who think the air pollution "won't have an impact on their health" ?

 

What do you mean by "the masks, the air purifiers... won't make a difference" ? Right now in my room I'm at 16 aqi with 004 ug/m3 of pm2.5 which is better than in my hometown that is in the green year round. I'm not breathing that toxic air while staying in chiang mai.

 

More importantly who are you to say things like "it's too late for a lot of us, our fate is already sealed" or "you will start to suffer the consequences maybe only 3 years from now". Are you a doctor ? A pulmonologist ? A scientist ? Do you have anything, any link to a study that can back up those claims you have made ? I'm really asking as I'm really interested in knowing more about what are the long term effects or this air pollution because I do love chiang mai. But you make those claims with nothing to back it up.

[JimGant]

18 hours ago, jimgilly said:

Final post on this and anything else with the CM forum as you people just don't get it.

Good riddance. May your travels find you stuck in traffic behind a 1955 model diesel bus.

[vivid]

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30366860

 

Half-million in Chiang Mai in desperate need of facemasks

 

Chiang Mai, strangling in haze, continues to plea urgently for donations of N95-grade facemasks for 500,000 citizens as well as air-purifiers to establish “clean rooms” at 230 hospitals.

[canuckamuck]

Here's my village today from about 200 meters up.

And today is better than yesterday.

[Marcous]

Significant improvement today. The southern winds are blowing it north. (Sorry Chiang Rai)

Blue skies and strong sunshine so went cycling on the cycle path to Cowboy Army Riding Club.

 

Doi Suthep is on fire. There were two choppers there dumping water on it. Think they were taking it from Huay Tung Tao Lake.

So someone is doing something, at least about this. 

 

Only had my shitty phone camera.

 

[wolfmuc]

5 hours ago, canuckamuck said:

Here's my village today from about 200 meters up.

And today is better than yesterday.

And tomorrow will be better than today...

Thanks for this crazy photo.

It's almost unbelievable.

Good luck for your health.

************

I had a look at fire mapper. We are the Champions.

 

[vivid]

Thought it'd clear there, but still very very bad in the extreme north (Chiang Rai).   Not extremely levels now, but sustained levels of heavy haze, which is just as bad.

 

Coz there are 2 things to consider, extreme transient levels (crazy levels like > AQI 1000 for an hour or two) which would trigger things like asthma, or sustained smoke (24 hrs > AQI 300 which would be absolutely hazardous esp those who are sick),

 

> 48 hours of hazardous air, wit some crazy high levels as well)

Koh Chang (Sub-district Health Promoting Hospital) Maesai Air Quality.

[vivid]

Looks like another very bad day.  Wiang district doing 621.

 

[vivid]

One more useful website for you folks to get air quality info in CM province from.  Doesn't cover N areas like Wiang or what, but it's of a slightly higher "resolution" than AQICN with more stations.

 

https://www.cmaqhi.org/

[HaleySabai]

17 hours ago, Marcous said:

Significant improvement today. The southern winds are blowing it north. (Sorry Chiang Rai)

Blue skies and strong sunshine so went cycling on the cycle path to Cowboy Army Riding Club.

 

Doi Suthep is on fire. There were two choppers there dumping water on it. Think they were taking it from Huay Tung Tao Lake.

So someone is doing something, at least about this. 

 

Only had my shitty phone camera.

 

To the left of the balloon is one of 2 fires that were burning last night around 10pm as I cycled pass here on my way back to Mae Rim from Tapae Gate. Since it's burning in their backyard I don't understand why the military can't send a battalion of grunts up there to contain it.

I heard that the Gov. has opened the Convention Hall for those in search of a purified breath of "fresh" air. At least this shows some concern.

 

 

[bkk6060]

8 minutes ago, HaleySabai said:

 

I heard that the Gov. has opened the Convention Hall for those in search of a purified breath of "fresh" air. At least this shows some concern.

 

 

What a wonderful caring person the governor is so concerned about others.

God bless him.

[vivid]

Opening of "Air Purified Halls" is not unheard of in S.E.A.  Indonesian officials also do that, pretty good political mileage.  And best of all, quite a number of the units are donated as well, both locally and from overseas.    

 

Actually if they ask for international aid, 500k of N95s is usually of no issue sent in from overseas (CM asking for that amount, MHS also).  That was done in 2015 Indonesian haze, actually activists flew in to Kalimantan to help distribute even.   I believe Singapore has a few tens of millions in its stockpile at any one time, not joking at all.....and anyway those masks do expire in about 5 years, so they gotta be used in one way or another.  (in 2013, they mobilised 16 mil within like 2 days, but most of it wasn't needed in the end as the dense haze only lasted 5 days).

 

Unfortunately, BKK-SIN bilateral relations are not at its best after a certain incident, so.......  I don't see why in 2015 assistance was sent to CM/CR and this year it is so much worse, old records were totally smashed by a large margin not only once but multiple times across many monitoring stations, but nope nothing at all.

 

 

[vivid]

29 minutes ago, bkk6060 said:

What a wonderful caring person the governor is so concerned about others.

God bless him.

 

OT a bit : After the Tham Luang cave incident, i actually have a pretty good impression of the CR governor.  ???? 

Is he still serving in CR?  Heard that he scored top points in that, did beyond expectations, and he gotta be posted to some other nice and peaceful province.  ????

[HaleySabai]

Not the Governor himself...the Government themselves. Apparently the Governor is under fire as there is a petition circulating among the citizenry to have him removed from office for his failure to take (any) action.....but really, what is one smuck do when it's holiday time in Phuket?

[vivid]

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30366927

Clamour grows for Upper North to be declared ‘smog disaster zone’ as forest fire hot spots top 3,000

Calls for the Upper North to be declared a smog disaster zone became louder on Monday, as the haze crisis persisted and the region’s smog-generating forest fires soared to 3,088 hot spots.

[canopy]

Wouldn't labeling it as a disaster area mean tourists would be evacuated and tours to the area cancelled? I can't see anyone pressing that button no matter how bad the smoke gets.

 

[vivid]

8 hours ago, canopy said:

Wouldn't labeling it as a disaster area mean tourists would be evacuated and tours to the area cancelled? I can't see anyone pressing that button no matter how bad the smoke gets.

 

So essentially from now till Songkran, the people are really on their own?  ????

 

I was playing with the figures and in Mae Rim (I think that's just a nearby area to the immediate north of Chiang Mai city) has got an average PM2.5 conc of 147 ug/m3 or AQI 198 for the first 3 months of 2019.

 

Comparatively, this probably is even higher than cities in N China during the whole of winter eg 3 months where smog levels are the worst, like Beijing.  Though to be fair, the past few years they did not really suffer from airpocalypse levels (various improvements made which probably worked).

 

Though i think N Thailand is still better than New Delhi.  Some stations in New Delhi had days of continuous 999.  ????

 

There could be stations with higher readings esp the northern districts of Chiang Mai Province.

 

 

 

 

[vivid]

Ok, there is some error in the above data that i posted and i can't edit the post.  It's NOT for the first 3 months of 2019, but the dataset is for the whole duration that CMAQHI.org has been in operation.  Not sure for how long that has been though.  

[vivid]

Flashback, just 2 weeks ago this caused an uproar.   14 stations in brown and 3 stations with 500 peaks.

 

 

 

 

Current levels like this is like the new daily norm......close to 30 brown stations and 9 stations past 500. 

(and red levels of AQI 180, 190 is actually considered as decently good air where you can go out to have a jog)

 

[vivid]

This station is not on aqicn.  On cmaqhi.org.

 

[vivid]

Good news, Chiang Mai city, at least half of it, still is in purple with the lowest at 213, that's about the cleanest air you can get around the CM, CR, MHS provinces.   All other stations are in brown, save for 2 of them outside of CM city.

 

So what's the PM2.5/PM10 concentration?  

Mae Na Chon in Mae Chaeam district, Chiang Mai.

 

[vivid]

Lashio Myanmar just got hit with AQI 1608 just now and Mogok Myanmar AQI 3355.  So it might be a very bad day today (see the winds later on how much it can clear in CM)

 

The Mogok hourly numbers for reference are.....

AQI 392, 1153, 1738, 2404, 2929 ,3355, 2740, 1531, 1406, 1550, 1632, 1629. 1617, 1631, 1764, 2011, 1483, 503

 

16 hours of > AQI 1000

 

 

Lashio

[vivid]

Some pretty large plumes can be spotted around CM and in MHS on today's visible satellite pics.   Around 1300h, where there is a strong WSW wind blowing.

No such thing a few days ago.

 

 

 

 

[vivid]

Actually it seems that the whole mountain range (undergrowth or what) of around 30-40km in length is burning just to the ENE to NNE of CM city.  And all those mountain range tops are also burning, coz there is supposed to be quite a stiff wind blowing in the picture, those are not haze layers due to inversion, but haze plumes emitted directly from the forest undegrowrth or whole land lots being burnt.  That is why you can see a certain "pattern" and not just a whole layer of messy flat clouds.

[bkk6060]

Back in Pattaya now.

A strong 2 hour rain this morning.

Everything is fresh and clean and clear.

Went for a 2 hour walk and enjoyed the freshness.

Nice!

[mtls2005]

37 minutes ago, bkk6060 said:

Back in Pattaya now.

A strong 2 hour rain this morning.

Everything is fresh and clean and clear.

Went for a 2 hour walk and enjoyed the freshness.

Nice!

 

 

[vivid]

Nice photo today with the clouds as the backdrop.   The smoke haze is blowing all the way to HK, Taiwan and pacific ocean, at high altitudes of course.  

 

[vivid]

Wiang Haeng district (28k pop) in CM province really pushing it today. Mae Sa and Mae Na Chon doing AQI 770 and 733 respectively.

 

[vivid]

2 stations simultaneously hit 999 (exact levels still unknown unless i check it out)

Wiang Haeng and Mae Sa in CM province.

 

[vivid]