When can you consider the smokey season over ? I think i will move to chiang mai at this point.

When can you consider the smokey season over ? I think i will move to chiang mai at this point.

When it's too wet to light fires.

after the burning season in the north is the air clean ? Is the daily pollution from traffic in Chiang mai as bad as bangkok ? where is there clean air in Thailand.. I am looking for clean air

after the burning season in the north is the air clean ? Is the daily pollution from traffic in Chiang mai as bad as bangkok ? where is there clean air in Thailand.. I am looking for clean air

the air is cleaned when the rains start.. That could be as late as May or in some years much earlier.. Hard to predict...

Doi Suthep late afternoon view February 13, 2013, and a view to the north on the following morning.

What is wrong with the pollution sensors in the city? CM has been the cleanest city in Thailand the last 2 days. The current reading at city hall is 11. I'm guessing it is nearing 80 but would like to know.

Not a bad year so far and after arriving in early December I thought it was going to be a repeat of last year. No hacking cough or sledge in the lungs. Leaving in 2 weeks to escape the worst of it so with any luck I will have survived CM smog, dust, and burning.

What is wrong with the pollution sensors in the city? CM has been the cleanest city in Thailand the last 2 days. The current reading at city hall is 11. I'm guessing it is nearing 80 but would like to know.

You're looking at NO2 reading, not PM10 @ NO DATA today

How bad do you think this season might be and why ? I am kind of in limbo until the smoke lifts then I want to study in Chiang mai

What is wrong with the pollution sensors in the city? CM has been the cleanest city in Thailand the last 2 days. The current reading at city hall is 11. I'm guessing it is nearing 80 but would like to know.

You're looking at NO2 reading, not PM10 @ NO DATA today

Thanks, just checked and reading is 76. Not great but can live with it.

The latest brief bulletin of the Chiang Mai News is here:

http://www.chiangmai...ews.php?id=1410

Also attached are a diagram of PM particle size and a WHO article on how PM affects health.

PM Particle Size Illustration.pdf

HOW PM Harms Health (WHO).pdf

Here's another "article" from Chiang Mai Mail:

http://www.chiangmai...rent/news.shtml

Nice picture of a field on fire, but not of soldiers putting it out. That's what the PR release printed by the Mail is about.

OK, Chiang Mai News and Chiang Mai Mail, how about some real reporting based on interviews with enforcement and fire fighting officials, such as: How many fires have been reported and mapped so far in December 2012 and in this calendar year? How many arrests and where have they been made so far this year? How many court cases are there or fines and other penalties have been levied? How many fires has the Army put out this year and where? Will agencies make public weekly reports? If not, why not? And while you are at it, you might ask the Governor's office what reports the governor is getting, and will he make them public.

Time to walk the walk, not talk the talk.

Any numbers on the PM-10 and/or PM-2.5 levels considered safe. For PM-10 I remember it was 100 in Thailand but seems to be 80 on most recent info I could find. WHO lists 80. Interested in what it is in USA, thought I saw 50 previously. Anybody have any data?

since the official website is hard to negotiate (and doesn't work on mobile - kind of what you'd expect from a government site...)

140 today... not so good; serious season has begun...

since the official website is hard to negotiate (and doesn't work on mobile - kind of what you'd expect from a government site...)

140 today... not so good; serious season has begun...

Where are these from? Is there a site I can look up this data?

since the official website is hard to negotiate (and doesn't work on mobile - kind of what you'd expect from a government site...)

140 today... not so good; serious season has begun...

Where are these from? Is there a site I can look up this data?

http://aqmthai.com/

An interactive website has been set up to monitor fires: www.thaiforestfire.com.

We were out mountain biking in the hills today and I remarked how dry it was up there. Tonight, you can see where the locals are walking on the ridges setting fires and causing these bright pearls of light that go on for miles. I am sure the fellow or fellows walking up there have no idea about the current pressures to stop the burning. It was a very clear day today up here in Mae Taeng but once the hills start to be burned, that will end.

Getting smoky in Pai with large areas of the surrounding forest seen burning every night.

Getting smoky in Pai with large areas of the surrounding forest seen burning every night.

With as many strings of fires we saw last night, it almost seemed like some kind of organized event. A bit like sky writing, but with fire in the mountains.

Mountain biking and outdoor sport in general may not be such a good idea with PM10 values going above 100. Unfortunately.... Went biking up and down Doi Pui on the weekend and did not see any fires, but the air quality was noticeably worse than before. The fires seem to spike just after dusk, at least in our neighbourhood in Sansai. This seems to indicate that people know about the prohibition of open fires, but are burning nevertheless after dark when they are less likely to be spotted. Great!

Cheers, CM-Expat

is it just me or is this year's air quality only slightly unhealthy? Last year had to leave CM and was constantly hacking. Also, the measuring devices seem to be inaccurate or misleading In December they were constantly reporting under 50 AQI and IMO the air near roads was much worse than today. I can now travel through town and not have to rinse off the brown muck after returning home. Also cycling up to Castle is now pleasant compared to December when I felt I was doing laps around a busy diesel truck stop.

is it just me or is this year's air quality only slightly unhealthy? Last year had to leave CM and was constantly hacking. Also, the measuring devices seem to be inaccurate or misleading In December they were constantly reporting under 50 AQI and IMO the air near roads was much worse than today. I can now travel through town and not have to rinse off the brown muck after returning home. Also cycling up to Castle is now pleasant compared to December when I felt I was doing laps around a busy diesel truck stop.

Not yet March. Everyone gets so uptight about the smoke in December, by February everyone's wondering where it is, because it never really hits properly until March.

It'll be here in two weeks, don't worry.

is it just me or is this year's air quality only slightly unhealthy? Last year had to leave CM and was constantly hacking. Also, the measuring devices seem to be inaccurate or misleading In December they were constantly reporting under 50 AQI and IMO the air near roads was much worse than today. I can now travel through town and not have to rinse off the brown muck after returning home. Also cycling up to Castle is now pleasant compared to December when I felt I was doing laps around a busy diesel truck stop.

Not yet March. Everyone gets so uptight about the smoke in December, by February everyone's wondering where it is, because it never really hits properly until March.

It'll be here in two weeks, don't worry.

Last year it definitely hit in February and not at the end of the month. The first week in February was awful and the airport was having a difficult time with practically no visibility. My bet, up tight and all, is that two weeks from now it won't come close to last year which is my up tight point.

This year has been nice relative to last and hope it continues.

The rain this week and last week is definitely helping.

You mean I put off my trip there and there is no freaking smog this year? What a rip I bet it will come when I get there ..

You mean I put off my trip there and there is no freaking smog this year? What a rip I bet it will come when I get there ..

Visibility here in Mae Taeng is currently well over a stunning ten miles. Last year the haze was setting in at this time according to my notes. (We were camping in a tent building a house so very exposed to it.)

Maybe someone could post the link to the actual Chiang Mai PM10 levels as my link is not working.

Looking forward to the STOP BURNING ads with Yingluck's photo on it, written in English, located in the city where all the farmers who can't read English can see them. That was a hoot last year.

Don't know how bad the air is today, but it feels as if you'd need a knife to cut it

Don't know how bad the air is today, but it feels as if you'd need a knife to cut it

I see the PM10 levels are between 58 and 80 ug/m3 in CM and the visibility here dropped to less than five miles today. My eyes aren't stinging yet though which is my ultimate subjective indicator! Last year the visibility got down to about 800 meters here in Mae Taeng and hoping that doesn't happen again.

Pretty happy with the season so far. I made plans for a long holiday by the beach if it does get worse, which it still might, soon.

For reference, there are many places in Central Thailand near-ish to Bangkok that currently have much worse air, for quite some time now.

For Chiang Mai, over the past couple of days the trend has been upwards (towards more particulate matter in the air) but not yet alarmingly so, and also not higher than you might expect for the time of year.

Crucially, looking at the measuring stations around us in Lampang, Chiang Rai and Mae Hong Son, these show fairly good values currently, similar to Chiang Mai at the moment. We tend to get several days warning because you'd see those stations reporting high levels. So as soon as I see Lampang or Chiang Rai go over the limit (based on daily average) then that means it's time for my holiday.

Pattaya here I come.