Real-time Air Quality Index (AQI):

 

http://aqicn.org/city/thailand/

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thais use the app Air4Thai.

Air quality is sometimes much better in Air4Thai.

13 minutes ago, uhuh said:

Thais use the app Air4Thai.

Air quality is sometimes much better in Air4Thai.

AQI that is an international index do not lie, as the Thailand uses they dress at the numbers.

20 minutes ago, uhuh said:

Thais use the app Air4Thai.

Air quality is sometimes much better in Air4Thai.

 

The AQICN site uses almost real time data, usually 1-3 hours behind real time...

 

The Air4Thai site uses the Thai PCD's prior 24 hour rolling average, which means its data is often out of date by the time anyone sees it.

 

Also, the AQICN site uses the U.S./international AQI scale that's based on lower acceptable pollution limits, whereas the Thai PCD AQI scale uses a higher scale of acceptable pollution in calculating its (different) AQI values.

 

 

Edited January 25, 20197 yr by TallGuyJohninBKK

14 hours ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

The Air4Thai site uses the Thai PCD's prior 24 hour rolling average

This is so they can hide how bad it gets.

 

14 hours ago, TallGuyJohninBKK said:

Thai PCD AQI scale uses a higher scale of acceptable pollution

Ditto.

 

In most countries the reason air quality is reported is to communicate an honest assessment of the healthiness of the air. In Thailand it's a sham where they don't want people to know how unhealthy it has become and refuse to tell them the truth. You'll be hearing more and more about the "thai scale".

 

6 hours ago, canopy said:

This is so they can hide how bad it gets.

 

Ditto.

 

In most countries the reason air quality is reported is to communicate an honest assessment of the healthiness of the air. In Thailand it's a sham where they don't want people to know how unhealthy it has become and refuse to tell them the truth. You'll be hearing more and more about the "thai scale".

 

 

This week, though, sometimes it has worked in reverse...

 

When I woke up this morning, my Thai wife had been watching the Thai TV news and quickly informed me the air was very bad outside today.... which, it isn't.

 

Because, like the newspapers, the Thai TV is using the government's reported past 24 hour average data, which for this morning, captures the very bad air that BKK had yesterday into last night.

 

But this morning outside, things have been much better in real time. Yet the government's past 24 hour average data won't begin to reflect that until hours from now when it will probably be bad again.

 

This is where real time, or close to it, data is much more useful to the average person than a past 24 hours average.

 

 

Curiously, during the past week or so, there's been a repeating pattern that seems a bit unusual...

 

Many days, the air in BKK has been very bad starting from the evening hours into overnight and then into the early morning hours.

 

But, from mid morning into the afternoons conditions have often improved considerably.... Not sure why....

 

It could be we're getting some midday and afternoon breezes, or something else. But you can see that pattern in the image below starting today, and also for each of the past two days....

 

 

I noticed the same pattern. Visibility is awful in the early morning,  getting better and better,  afternoon is quite ok, evening is dark anyway. 

I guess it's daytime breeze?