Koh Samui air quality

[TerraplaneGuy]

With air quality in BKK becoming hazardous I was thinking of escaping to KS.  Then I saw an article on Samui Times saying the air there is very bad now because of Indonesian fires.  But although the dateline was today I'm not sure if it's current news.  Any info on current air quality on the island much appreciated! (and if you know about Surat Thani too please advise).  

[PoorSucker]

No problems. 

Last time we were affected by Indonesian fires was six, seven years ago, even then I didn't notice. 

[khunPer]

 

3 hours ago, TerraplaneGuy said:

Any info on current air quality on the island much appreciated!

Fine air quality, as usual on the islands. I don't think anybody cares to measure it, at least not anything we ever hear about.

 

As @PoorSucker said, we hardly have any problems, but the Indonesian fires a few years back, where the wind made smoke heading in our direction, we had a few days with not that clear vision over the sea for two or three days only; an extremely rare situation. You wouldn't have noticed it, if you didn't stay by the seaside.

[Birdman]

normally perfect. But if bad luck, neighbour burning coconuts all day all night

[KhunBENQ]

It would have made news.

No a trace about the Indonesian or other remote wildfires affecting the south this year.

 

If you want to see wildfires come up here to see burning sugarcane.

Red sky in the night.

[khunPer]

The actually is a "haze map" I used durting the Indonesian fires a few years back, it's calle "Regional Haze Situation" (also a link).

[islandguy]

6 hours ago, PoorSucker said:

No problems. 

Last time we were affected by Indonesian fires was six, seven years ago, even then I didn't notice. 

October 2015 haze from Borneo and Sumatra so bad Airport briefly closed. Mostly good air on Samui except for trash fires

[TerraplaneGuy]

9 hours ago, KhunBENQ said:

It would have made news.

No a trace about the Indonesian or other remote wildfires affecting the south this year.

 

If you want to see wildfires come up here to see burning sugarcane.

Red sky in the night.

Where do you mean by “here”? 

[TerraplaneGuy]

14 hours ago, islandguy said:

Mostly good air on Samui except for trash fires

Are there places on the island that suffer more or less with those fires, or is it all over?  If I'm choosing where to stay there, can you suggest the best place for air?

[Tropicalevo]

Ignore the 'flippant' comments re trash fires. Many Thais burn their trash so that they do not have to pay the garbage tax. Most houses will have a small fire at some time or other during the year.

 

For the best air - just stay away from the garbage dump in the south of the island.

 

Pretty much everywhere else the air here is great. A nice breezy day today - no complaints. Well - it is a tad chilly.

 

[KhunBENQ]

12 hours ago, TerraplaneGuy said:

Where do you mean by “here”? 

See my avatar.

And it applies to most of the northeast/Isan but not limited to.

[TerraplaneGuy]

23 minutes ago, KhunBENQ said:

See my avatar.

And it applies to most of the northeast/Isan but not limited to.

Ah gotcha.  Yes I've been up north during this time of year and the smoke was pretty intense.  The trouble with finding clean air in Thailand (other than that there isn't very much anymore) is that the air quality reports are inadequate in many places, especially the south.  There are few monitoring stations and the ones that exist generally don't report the PM2.5 particles (the most dangerous ones) so they post deceptively "green" readings on the air quality websites.

[VirgoSG]

Mediterranean skies right now at my house

 

 

[PoorSucker]

Live from the beach, air quality, waves, no of tourists. 

 

[GreasyFingers]

25 minutes ago, PoorSucker said:

Live from the beach, air quality, waves, no of tourists. 

 

You picked a good day without the strong onshore wind but there is still weed in the water.

But Crystal Bay is one of the best beaches on the east coast.

[PoorSucker]

34 minutes ago, GreasyFingers said:

You picked a good day without the strong onshore wind but there is still weed in the water 

It's a live feed. 

[SamuiGeezer]

On 1/25/2019 at 7:18 PM, islandguy said:

Mostly good air on Samui except for trash fires

Agree

 

On 1/26/2019 at 9:26 AM, TerraplaneGuy said:

Are there places on the island that suffer more or less with those fires, or is it all over?  If I'm choosing where to stay there, can you suggest the best place for air?

Air is normally okay but you don't want to live/stay near the average Thai.

 

On 1/26/2019 at 10:15 AM, Tropicalevo said:

Ignore the 'flippant' comments re trash fires. Many Thais burn their trash so that they do not have to pay the garbage tax. Most houses will have a small fire at some time or other during the year.

I've had to move house because of this (being smoked out of your house every couple of days would be considered annoying by most people) so far from 'flippant'. It is something to consider when you decide where to rent or even more seriously buy.

[TerraplaneGuy]

11 hours ago, SamuiGeezer said:

... I've had to move house because of this (being smoked out of your house every couple of days would be considered annoying by most people) so far from 'flippant'. It is something to consider when you decide where to rent or even more seriously buy.

I understand that the problem of burning garbage exists throughout rural Thailand. It seems it's because of a combination of inadequate garbage pickup service and a strongly ingrained cultural habit of burning as the "normal" way to dispose of trash.  Of course it's worse in some places than others so:  Just how prevalent is it in Koh Samui?  Is there really hope of finding a home on the island that is free of smoke from neighbours or is the practice so widespread that you pretty much have to count on it affecting you at least occasionally?  I could imagine putting up with it say once or twice a month for a few hours but if it's a daily or even weekly occurrence - especially if you can't predict the timing so can't plan to get out to another place while it's going on - I'd find it hard to live with. 

[Birdman]

No, it's not so bad. If you live on an natural piece of land next to another, chances are higher than if you live at a moo baan surrounded by other moo baans. But also minimal. I live on very natural kept 5 beach rai neighboring an original Samui family on their land since almost 30 years. In this years most annoying was coconut burning of grandma for some weeks about 20 years ago and loud noise of gamecocks nightly for some months in the 90 . 

 

[Tropicalevo]

On 1/27/2019 at 10:25 PM, SamuiGeezer said:

Agree

 

Air is normally okay but you don't want to live/stay near the average Thai.

 

I've had to move house because of this (being smoked out of your house every couple of days would be considered annoying by most people) so far from 'flippant'. It is something to consider when you decide where to rent or even more seriously buy.

Apologies for my ignorance SamuiGeezer. I can see how fires next door would be troublesome at that frequency.

 

It is just that I rarely see anyone burning trash in the area where I live. It obviously happens but very infrequently here. I do have a coconut harvester who burns 3 or 4 times a year, but as the wind changes direction every six months it rarely affects me. I just put it down to 'Thai culture'.

[mikey88]

[SamuiGeezer]

16 hours ago, Tropicalevo said:

Apologies for my ignorance SamuiGeezer. I can see how fires next door would be troublesome at that frequency.

 

It is just that I rarely see anyone burning trash in the area where I live. It obviously happens but very infrequently here. I do have a coconut harvester who burns 3 or 4 times a year, but as the wind changes direction every six months it rarely affects me. I just put it down to 'Thai culture'.

My advice would be to scout the area, where you want to rent. If buying then spend more time looking into it.

If the place you want to buy or rent is next to Thais then expect the worst. If you are surrounded by 'farang houses' - you probably don't need to worry too much.

[wilcopops]

There are of course AQI indices for Samui.

https://air-quality.com/place/thailand/ko-samui/746adcef?lang=en&standard=aqi_us

 

 

The last few days have been very hazy, people are blaming burning in Northern Thailand, but depending on the winds either at ground level or higher it might be from Indonesia.

[khunPer]

4 hours ago, wilcopops said:

There are of course AQI indices for Samui.

https://air-quality.com/place/thailand/ko-samui/746adcef?lang=en&standard=aqi_us

 

The last few days have been very hazy, people are blaming burning in Northern Thailand, but depending on the winds either at ground level or higher it might be from Indonesia.

You can follow the haze situation here at "Regional Haze Situation".
 

Back in October 2015 we had haze-problems a few days on Samui due to oil-plantagen forest fires on Sumatra in Indonesia, cause by wind direction; the visibility from my point was about 2.5 kilometer over sea (Maenam Bay)...

 

–and this is how it looked a few days later...

 

Normally we don't have any serious haze problems here, unclear weather is mainly due to moist.

[highfive]

On 3/17/2019 at 9:30 AM, wilcopops said:

There are of course AQI indices for Samui.

https://air-quality.com/place/thailand/ko-samui/746adcef?lang=en&standard=aqi_us

 

 

The last few days have been very hazy, people are blaming burning in Northern Thailand, but depending on the winds either at ground level or higher it might be from Indonesia.

These figures are not accurate at all. The air quality in Koh Samui in many areas (especially on the west side) right now is absolutely horrible, if I placed a PM2.5 sensor next to my house I'm sure that the readings would be just as high as they are in Chiang Mai or Bangkok, if not higher.

[wilcopops]

2 hours ago, highfive said:

These figures are not accurate at all. The air quality in Koh Samui in many areas (especially on the west side) right now is absolutely horrible, if I placed a PM2.5 sensor next to my house I'm sure that the readings would be just as high as they are in Chiang Mai or Bangkok, if not higher.

Placement of AQI sensors is highly questionable so readings may not be indicative of the bigger picture or pockets around the island.

 

Things like coconut burning take place all year round and one doesn't want to be downwind of these.

However a few years back there was a serious problem with haze from Indonesia and I suppose if the winds drift the right way, Northern Thailand could be a source too.

In general compared to areas around Bkk such as Samuk Pakhan, Chachoengsao, Chonburi and Rayong, the air quality remains good, but it is a shame and a sign of Thailand's growing and relatively unregulated industrial growth that this problem is only likely to increase in the next few years.

[wilcopops]

2 hours ago, highfive said:

The air quality in Koh Samui in many areas (especially on the west side) right now is absolutely horrible,

I'm not one to ask for citations on a non academic forum, but I think at least you could reveal the thinking behind this statement.

[SamuiGeezer]

We had a bit of a haze a couple of days ago. It was completely wiped out by the heavy rain yesterday morning.

[khunPer]

4 hours ago, highfive said:

if I placed a PM2.5 sensor next to my house I'm sure that the readings would be just as high as they are in Chiang Mai or Bangkok, if not higher.

"if" sounds like speculation – did you place a PM2.5 sensor, and what did it read..?

[wilcopops]

7 hours ago, khunPer said:

"if" sounds like speculation – did you place a PM2.5 sensor, and what did it read..?

 

7 hours ago, SamuiGeezer said:

We had a bit of a haze a couple of days ago. It was completely wiped out by the heavy rain yesterday morning.

One needs to identify the haze, though. If it was just moisture in the atmosphere, then no problem and washed out by rain.....however more sinister industrial or burning pollution would just be washed into the ground which is not good.

Burning particulates etc. are trapped by cloud and still air and can get concentrated into unhealthy smog.