Smoke-laced smog envelops Phuket

[webfact]

Smoke-laced smog envelops Phuket

By The Thaiger

 

MAIN PHOTO: Phuket International Airport – Phuket People’s Voice

 

Phuket awakes today enveloped by an eerie sea of smoke-laced mist and smog – a combination of light winds, smoke blowing up the Malacca Strait from the Indonesian plantation fires and low seasonal cloud. The conditions have reduced visibility generally around the island to less than a kilometre.

 

Planes have still been landing at Phuket International Airport without disruption but airport officials say they are monitoring the situation and getting feedback from pilots.

 

Officially, the Thai Meteorological Department forecast is for a cloudy day with rain, and its hoped that the monsoonal winds may kick in during the day. But the prevailing winds are also the direction from where the problem is happening, from the south and south-west.

 

Cloudy with scattered thundershowers and isolated heavy rain in Ranong, Phangnga, Phuket, Krabi and Trang. Minimum temperature 23-25 °C.

Maximum temperature 29-33 °C. Southwesterly winds 20-35 km/hr. Wave height about 2 meters and above 2 meters in thundershower areas.

 

Singapore ran its showcase annual street-circuit Grand Prix last night amid the regional smoke crisis, caused by intentionally lit fires on the Indonesian

islands, mostly Sumatra and Kalimantan. Indonesia President Jokowi has sent officials, army and fire-fighters to the areas to battle the blazes, arrest the farmers and representatives from the companies responsible. Some 30,000 people are now deployed to solve the urgent, but seasonal, problem.

 

Singapore GP Circuit last night – Reuters

 

Meanwhile the air quality readings for Phuket this morning indicate the air pollution is three times the world upper-limit standard of 50 micrograms per cubic metre of air. Southern Thailand is also suffering the poor air quality with Narithawat also recoding readings over 150 this morning.

 

 

 

 

 

Phuket enveloped by misty smog causing a traffic hazard and reducing visibility – Ajarn GC

 

Source: https://thethaiger.com/hot-news/weather/smoke-laced-smog-envelops-phuket

 

-- © Copyright The Thaiger 2019-09-23

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[xylophone]

This is bloody disgusting and goes hand in hand with the yearly burning in Indonesia and in Northern Thailand...........governments seem powerless to stop it, and are either useless or corrupt, or possibly both.

 

The 2.5 pm reading at 9.00 am this morning on my balcony was 120, whereas now (11.15 am) it has dropped to 85. 

 

Bad for health and uncomfortable on the eyes and nose, and does nothing for Patong's reputation as a holiday destination!!

 

[LivinginKata]

Yes it was extremely bad earlier this morning. Easing up now. News reported 155 reading. 3 times more than healthy limit. 

[ChipButty]

At 6am this morning could smell it 

[SoilSpoil]

Shame on Indonesia

[spidermike007]

The real culprit in this is palm oil. It is a horrendous product, that is toxic to eat, as the flash point is low, and the level of saturated fat is high. 

 

Refined palm oil contains glycidol and other harmful fatty acid esters in very high concentrations.There is sufficient evidence that glycidol is genotoxic and carcinogenic, Knutsen noted.

The cheap tropical oil has found its way into half of the products in our supermarkets. Most people unwittingly consume palm oil several times a day: it can be found in chocolate spread, crunchy cereals, margarine, frozen dinners, sausages, pastries, ice cream, candy and countless other foods.

 

https://www.rainforest-rescue.org/petitions/1056/get-carcinogenic-refined-palm-oil-out-of-our-food

 

And the burning is mostly intentional, to clear land for palm oil plantations. Indonesia has been completely impotent to stop this, and it is likely corruption at the highest levels is the root cause.

 

Indonesia has long struggled to police the vast rural expanse in Sumatra and Kalimantan. The slash-and-burn technique employed by many in the region is arguably the easiest way for farmers to clear their land and helps them get rid of any disease that may have affected their crops. But it's not just small-scale farmers at work here. The concern is many of these fires are started by big corporations that want to plant oil palm plantations.

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-34265922

 

 

Edited September 23, 2019 by spidermike007

[Sujo]

I dont think it is all indos fault. I believe lots of the palm oil plantations are owned by sime darby, from malaysia.

[legend49]

3 hours ago, LivinginKata said:

Yes it was extremely bad earlier this morning. Easing up now. News reported 155 reading. 3 times more than healthy limit. 

155 is normal for Chiang Mai so welcome.

[Kopitiam]

56 minutes ago, Sujo said:

I dont think it is all indos fault. I believe lots of the palm oil plantations are owned by sime darby, from malaysia.

Don't put blame on others.  If a outsider starts a fire in your home, you are not going to take that outsider to task and put a stop to it?  And this has been going on for decades.  Corruption at the highest level.

[madmitch]

it should be a task for ASEAN to attempt to fix as the selfishness of farmers and corporations in one country affects several countries in the region.

 

 

[quadperfect]

Where do these thai met get there weather info.

it hasnt blown south west for 4 days here in phuket. Its been north west mostly here at ground level in morning and eve Or no wind at all like yesterday and previouse days. Infact its blowing 15 to 20 knots east north east since this morning  and will continue to be this way for another week. Says wind guru and buoy weather my go to fast look weather information.

I am baffled at the consistently poor weather advice we usually get here and a few days late too.

I guess it sums up everything else happening in the country. Just totally opposit of reality.

 

[justin case]

they can use the propellors of the new 8 attack helicopters and sent it back where it came from

[Old Croc]

Phuket's AQI is in the green this morning.  Rated at 30 - Good.

 

The areas where the fires are, Sumatra and Borneo, have reasonable levels now. Perhaps the fires are out?

[TMNH]

On 9/23/2019 at 4:12 AM, legend49 said:

155 is normal for Chiang Mai so welcome.

and yet why would you live there? ????

 

[TMNH]

Face masks? Or oxygen if affordable?

 

[wotsdermatter]

The name "smog" comes from the combination of smoke and fog so, of course, smoke would be in smog.  When growing up in London we had smog so bad that what the photos here are showing would be classed as light fog.  Also, we had "pea-soupers" which were so-called as that was their colour and density.  When we had either it was impossible to see a hand held out in front of you.  The buses and the underground would shut down and us kids would be sent home from school.  We found our way home by using our hands to feel the buildings so we would not get lost.  This is not smog as we knew it which was a real danger to health.

'nuf sed.

[LivinginKata]

2 hours ago, wotsdermatter said:

The name "smog" comes from the combination of smoke and fog so, of course, smoke would be in smog.  When growing up in London we had smog so bad that what the photos here are showing would be classed as light fog.  Also, we had "pea-soupers" which were so-called as that was their colour and density.  When we had either it was impossible to see a hand held out in front of you.  The buses and the underground would shut down and us kids would be sent home from school.  We found our way home by using our hands to feel the buildings so we would not get lost.  This is not smog as we knew it which was a real danger to health.

'nuf sed.

 

I well remember those sort of days in the UK. Caused mostly by coal fires burning in almost all UK homes for heat and hot water. Before days of smokeless coal.

[wotsdermatter]

9 minutes ago, LivinginKata said:

Caused mostly by coal fires burning in almost all UK homes for heat and hot water.

Where I lived, Fulham, we never had hot water and no electric lights.  Water had to be heated in buckets on top of the gas stove.  Street and house lights were all gas - remember the silk pouches we had to put on the lights so that they would glow pale yellow.  Do not forget that factories consumed coal by the ton as did the steam trains.  Well remember Battersea Power Station doing that as did the coke making facilities.  Mind you, coke did burn cleaner but anthracite was cleaner and produced more heat in the home without adding too much pollution to the air.

'nuf sed.

Edited September 30, 2019 by wotsdermatter