I checked the air quality index this morning in the Chiang Mai area and it was in the 80's and 90's and some places over 100. Has the burning season started already? I always thought it started sometime in January and lasted now until around the middle of May. If the burning has in fact started I really have to get out of here permanently. I was planning on staying until January and then heading to a better location to escape the toxic air but now I am wondering if the burning season is starting now. Forget the government. Nothing will get done and all they care about is profits over people. So countless folks are slowly poisoned to death with this toxic air. You think Chiang Mai has a problem now with tourism. If the burning season has really started now more and more folks will stay clear of this city and many folks who are already hurting with fewer tourists will suffer even more. All the while the government will do nothing. It is pathetic and so typical of what goes on here. Money and greed over the population. and their health.

I think the joke is moving to Chiang Mai and expecting it to get better?  

Please not 7 months worth of posts about AQI ????????????????

Rice is harvested in the fall...burn fields after 1st of year...someone could be cleaning off debris to plant a new area...or burning some fields other than rice fields...

 

It is all bad...I know...causes me lots of problems...

Cooler air at night trapping the pollution in the valley.  Fruit farmers burning orchard cuttings after harvest at the moment.  Also dairy farmers burn 365 days a year to create smoke to keep mosquitos away from their cows.

I know folks in Bangkok have been complaining that it is already getting bad there too.

 

BTW: I heard that "isn't it ironic" song playing in my head when I saw this

Prayut pledges Asean’s commitment to climate change cooperation

 

 

Flying into the city yesterday there was a thick blanket of smoke over the entire city. You could see it was even thicker going into the mountains. 
 

My guess is they were instructed to burn early so actual burn season isn’t as bad as it was last year. This way they can ruin the city for 8 months instead of 3. Thai problem solving at its best.

Sigh.. congratulations on the first nonsense on this for the season. ????

 

* Levels are completely normal.  You've been spoiled with 3-4 months consistently in the green, which is much better than normal.  Anywhere in Asia you will typically see 'moderate' (yellow) levels.  If that's not to your liking then go be in coastal Canada.

 

* We can say it's normal based on recorded PM2.5 levels going back seven years.   (Please note that "Normal" in the English language is not a synonym for "good".)

 

* What's new for last year and this year is information on where it comes from. We didn't have that before, and in this case it appears to be the changing airflow, with current weather coming from Vietnam. 

 

 (This by the way should be noted by a number of Vietnam fanboys, the people throwing a hissy fit in almost every topic that the're moving to Vietnam: well good luck, Hanoi ranked as having the worst air in the world the last couple days, and on average North Vietnam has worse air than Northern Thailand (as a yearly average) 

 

* You can expect on average 'yellow' on the US AQI scale until mid February.    No, we don't want to hear about it. People wanting green air: Canada, Norway, Coastal Australia, etc. 

 

 

 

What's typical in a year: (value for September 2019 is an estimate as there are a couple more days to go.)

 

 

33 minutes ago, WinnieTheKhwai said:

If that's not to your liking then go be in coastal Canada.

In a related story a man in Los Angeles was detained by police whilst in the act of trying to suck the air out of a Canadian car's tires.

The burning is most likely the neighboring mooh baan burning their garbage, plastic bags you will smell and in the morning your car will be covered in black plastic snow. We get it all the time we are NNE of the city by 15 klms.

1 hour ago, WinnieTheKhwai said:

 

 

* Levels are completely normal.  

 

 

What's typical in a year: (value for September 2019 is an estimate as there are a couple more days to go.)

 

 

Based on the graphic you posted, levels in September are half of what they are today. That’s not normal. That’s double.

 

Even in October the highest historically is 80. We are over 100 and counting today. Again, not normal.

"Cooler air at night trapping the pollution in the valley.  Fruit farmers burning orchard cuttings after harvest at the moment.  Also dairy farmers burn 365 days a year to create smoke to keep mosquitos away from their cows."

 

"The burning is most likely the neighboring mooh baan burning their garbage, plastic bags you will smell and in the morning your car will be covered in black plastic snow. We get it all the time we are NNE of the city by 15 klms"

 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/gallery/2019/sep/24/indonesian-forest-fires-burn-causing-toxic-haze-across-south-east-asia-in-pictures

 

All SEA is suffering, not only Chiang Mai. I guess Chiang Mai is starting suffering from the smoke coming mostly from Indonesia. Singapore has been strongly complaining in ASEAN meetings. If you look at a global AQI of the area you will better understand. Nothing to do with the local garnage burning or rice field burning or whatever...

I'm an 11 hour drive from CM and feeling anxious already.........come school holidays in March and April I'm out of here to some coastal area like Hua Hin for 2 months while they burn their rice and sugar cane fields here, never wanted anything bad to happen to anyone, but I hope Karma in this situation could come quick, multiplied by x amount of people and I swear I wouldn't waste a single breath on them !

54 minutes ago, dcnx said:

Based on the graphic you posted, levels in September are half of what they are today. That’s not normal. That’s double.

 

Even in October the highest historically is 80. We are over 100 and counting today. Again, not normal.

 

They're average values.  An average means that some days are lower, others are higher.  For September we'll likely end up around 53 or 55 or so.  Roughly the same as every other September.  (It doesn't mean that when an average is for example 55 that every single day is exactly 55: some are lower, some are higher.)

Also it's hard to find better air this September anywhere else in Thailand, or SE Asia. 

That's the smoke coming over from Indonesia. Totally blanketed Phuket, here, for 2 days with a 160 AQI. Passed now. 

80 is not a big deal... but you should probably hurry and book your tkt out before the roads are clogged with people fleeing... 

3 hours ago, WinnieTheKhwai said:

Sigh.. congratulations on the first nonsense on this for the season. ????

 

* Levels are completely normal.  You've been spoiled with 3-4 months consistently in the green, which is much better than normal.  Anywhere in Asia you will typically see 'moderate' (yellow) levels.  If that's not to your liking then go be in coastal Canada.

 

* We can say it's normal based on recorded PM2.5 levels going back seven years.   (Please note that "Normal" in the English language is not a synonym for "good".)

 

* What's new for last year and this year is information on where it comes from. We didn't have that before, and in this case it appears to be the changing airflow, with current weather coming from Vietnam. 

 

 (This by the way should be noted by a number of Vietnam fanboys, the people throwing a hissy fit in almost every topic that the're moving to Vietnam: well good luck, Hanoi ranked as having the worst air in the world the last couple days, and on average North Vietnam has worse air than Northern Thailand (as a yearly average) 

 

* You can expect on average 'yellow' on the US AQI scale until mid February.    No, we don't want to hear about it. People wanting green air: Canada, Norway, Coastal Australia, etc. 

 

 

 

What's typical in a year: (value for September 2019 is an estimate as there are a couple more days to go.)

 

 

Can you tell us the source for your historical data?  

7 hours ago, Puchaiyank said:

Rice is harvested in the fall...burn fields after 1st of year...someone could be cleaning off debris to plant a new area...or burning some fields other than rice fields...

 

It is all bad...I know...causes me lots of problems...

If it were only the rice fields it  

wouldn’t be too bad but the intentional burning of the jungle as a way to clear the land by the hill tribes is what has made it all worse.

Not like Bangkok is any better. Way over 100 for a week now.

Today I drove into CM today for the first time in a couple of months and was surprised to see a haze over the mountain. There is plenty of burning going on now. Disappointing to say the least. I prefer mountains to beaches so live in the north but if this pollution gets even a little bit worse, and it looks like it will, then it will be time for a new location. Maybe down south on a beach. I have a Thai wife so want to stay in Thailand but more and more that is getting harder to do.

It is still the rainy season no major burning at this time

Ignore posts by people involved in tourism in Chiang Mai ????

3 hours ago, legend49 said:

The burning is most likely the neighboring mooh baan burning their garbage, plastic bags you will smell and in the morning your car will be covered in black plastic snow. We get it all the time we are NNE of the city by 15 klms.

trash burning esp plastic is the stupidist idea ever. makes a big mess and you have to clean it up after anyhow. i think those thai guys think burnjng it turns everything to ashes and its gone  like a cremation.

I don't know what is causing the higher AQI numbers.  I exercise daily early AM and evening.  I always check the AQI and as you noticed, lately the numbers have been at or over a hundred with some areas even getting up to 250.  A check of the last 48 hours for the past 2 weeks shows hardly any Green (below 50) and most numbers are in the high 80's and 90's.  While not critical for everyone, it can cause some people to experience problems with their lungs and breathing.  The smell is exactly like the periods that they are burning fields but with the rains of late, don't understand what they are burning.  It doesn't smell like garbage.

 

16 minutes ago, moe666 said:

It is still the rainy season no major burning at this time

Perhaps you have not driven around Chiang Mai today, there is certainly a haze not only on the mountain and it certainly a smell of smoke, unless I am mistaken !!

A few beeps up on the IQI would sure improve this discussion.


Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

BC forest fires last year ... so quit moaning about CNX

 

The higher than average PM2.5 readings around Chiang Mai in the past few weeks is due to burning off of lamyai tree cuttings. Same every year.

 

Lamyai is picked over the course of several weeks from late August through to mid-late September as the fruit ripens and reaches the optimum size. Once all the fruit has been harvested, the lamyai trees are cut back and that leaves alot of wood and alot more leaves that are left on the ground to dry for a few days. Then they are burned.

 

Drive anywhere near the lamyai orchards outside and around Chiang Mai in the past three weeks and you'll have seen many plumes of smoke everywhere as individual farmers burn off the cuttings. Nearly all done now.