Thai Cancels Flights As Smoke Engulfs Mae Hong Son

[george]

THAI cancels flights as smoke engulfs Mae Hong Son

MAE HONG SON: -- Thai Airways International Public Company Limited (THAI), the national flag carrier, was forced to cancel its flights to the country's northern province of Mae Hong Son Monday morning after smoke from forest fires blanketed the sky.

Mr. Phisit Phuangsuwann, head of the provincial meteorological office, told reporters that smoke had encompassed several districts, leading to poor visibility.

This morning the smoke was so bad that THAI planes were unable to land, and flights had to be postponed until this afternoon when visibility improved.

Many Chiang Mai-bound tourists left stranded at the airport were, instead, forced to pay Bt3,000 to hire special buses to take them to their destination.

According to local reports, over 1,000 rai of forest land in the province is now ablaze.

-- TNA 2005-02-28

[Ajarn]

A ###### of a lot more than 1,000 rai, I'll bet...On a recent trip to Mae Sariang, The only green ANYTHING I saw the whole trip was along the river. All the mountains visible from the road were completly black as far as you could see, right to the top, with still-live fires everywhere. I'd guess at least in the 100,000's of rai... I read somewhere recently that there were something like 300+ forest fires reported this year in Thailand so far. That's true just for Chiang Mai Province, in my view...

And none are accidental

A recent day in Chiang Mai

[sriracha john]

** cough cough **

at least the situation is not present in the photo on the left

Edited February 28, 2005 by sriracha john

[ovenman]

Canceling Chiang Mai-Mae Hong Son flights in the hot season due to smoke is nothing new. It's happened every hot season since I first came to Thailand (1993) and I'm sure the pattern continues back to whenever THAI first began flying the Mae Hong Son route.

[Ajarn]

Canceling Chiang Mai-Mae Hong Son flights in the hot season due to smoke is nothing new.  It's happened every hot season since I first came to Thailand (1993) and I'm sure the pattern continues back to whenever THAI first began flying the Mae Hong Son route.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

True, but when I first came here, it was much more of a rarity, and mostly for morning fog in the cool season, rather than smoke from burns, as I recall. That part has changed a lot, in my view.

Granted, the published news story is a bit of a, "so, what else is new?" kind of story now...

[Pattaya_Fox]

Canceling Chiang Mai-Mae Hong Son flights in the hot season due to smoke is nothing new.  It's happened every hot season since I first came to Thailand (1993) and I'm sure the pattern continues back to whenever THAI first began flying the Mae Hong Son route.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

True, but when I first came here, it was much more of a rarity, and mostly for morning fog in the cool season, rather than smoke from burns, as I recall. That part has changed a lot, in my view.

Granted, the published news story is a bit of a, "so, what else is new?" kind of story now...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Are the locals burning the forests to use the land for farming??

[Ajarn]

Canceling Chiang Mai-Mae Hong Son flights in the hot season due to smoke is nothing new.  It's happened every hot season since I first came to Thailand (1993) and I'm sure the pattern continues back to whenever THAI first began flying the Mae Hong Son route.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

True, but when I first came here, it was much more of a rarity, and mostly for morning fog in the cool season, rather than smoke from burns, as I recall. That part has changed a lot, in my view.

Granted, the published news story is a bit of a, "so, what else is new?" kind of story now...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Are the locals burning the forests to use the land for farming??

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Therein lies part of the mystery. For me, anyway. I used to think it was some kind of fire prevention measure, like clearing built-up brush from roadsides, but when the 'clearing' meant clearing everything, I began to wonder.

Yes, some is for farming, but only a minute percentage in my view, since so much of what is burned would be un-plantable in anyone's book...

A couple of years ago, I starting hearing about some special mushrooms that were local favorites, but expensive. I heard that many folks started fires to aid in the mushroom picking. Some have suggested the heat of the fire somehow aids in the growth, others have suggested that the forest cover is burned off so that when the rains come, and the shrooms pop up, they'll be easier to find....

Your guess is as good as mine.

On more positive note, today was noticable clearer...

Before .............................................................................and After (today)

Edited March 1, 2005 by Ajarn

[ovenman]

On  more positive note, today was noticable clearer...

I notice that the view of Doi Suthep is not too bad today either. I'm sure that it being rather breezy the past two days has helped to disperse the pollutants.

[Sphere]

Before .............................................................................and After (today)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Nice to see that they have done away with that ugly radio tower as well.