Smoke, Smog, Dust 2014 Chiang Mai

[T_Dog]

Visibility took a big drop today and is under ten miles up here in Mae Taeng. A haze is hanging over the valley. Not much burning up in the hills yet but the forest is drying out quickly with the warmer weather.

[chiangmaiexpat]

It's the same in the city. Air quality and visibility are going south, which is also reflected by the current measurements, as well as by the finest instrument of them all, my nose. I guess we can call this the official burning season opening.

Cheers, CM-Expat

[scotinsiam]

My view over Doi Suthep was pretty poor today, seeing a lot of small dust particles on my newly valeted truck already!! It certainly was not great today and evne ended up in a bout of sneezing!

Time to head South for a bit.

[Mapguy]

There is a good PDF document that explains the situation: www.ec.oita-u.ac.jp/isf2011/pdf/proceedings-93-103.pdf

According to the document, mountainous terrain make the use of machines (to make fertilizers) difficult. Any ideas?

From what I am reading, the use of corn is in reaction to a demand and a need. "Corn is important in Asia as a livestock feed and a staple food, as well as a raw material for starches and sugars used in food processing and other industries." (http://www.agnet.org/library.php?func=view&style=type&id=20110725095646)

We need solutions. We know that there is a problem

Composting? Ploughing under? I notice that the average rice production per rai here is half of what other countries yield, yet no one seems interested in changing methods...

Half? Interesting! Do you have any references for this?

I wonder about the variables, of course, as you do, such as the topographical profile of the landscape and the size of holdings. Those do make a big difference!

Small paddy agriculture, many in less favorable topography as opposed to larger holdings, seems to relate to the relative cost of inputs, such a fertilizer, mechanization, and so on. Do you have any thoughts or information on that?

[jonwilly]

From my Condo on Suthep Rd I could see the hills the other side of the Vally at Doi Saket at 18.00 hrs today.

When I went through Wing 41 this morning I saw the Aircraft that they use for cloud seeding, normally used to make rain.

I do wonder if these aircraft have been doing 'something' to keep away what would normally be our bad Smog, usually well set in by this time of the year.

john

Booked my trip down south anyway.

[cloudhopper]

There is a good PDF document that explains the situation: www.ec.oita-u.ac.jp/isf2011/pdf/proceedings-93-103.pdf

According to the document, mountainous terrain make the use of machines (to make fertilizers) difficult. Any ideas?

From what I am reading, the use of corn is in reaction to a demand and a need. "Corn is important in Asia as a livestock feed and a staple food, as well as a raw material for starches and sugars used in food processing and other industries." (http://www.agnet.org/library.php?func=view&style=type&id=20110725095646)

We need solutions. We know that there is a problem

Composting? Ploughing under? I notice that the average rice production per rai here is half of what other countries yield, yet no one seems interested in changing methods...

Half? Interesting! Do you have any references for this?

I wonder about the variables, of course, as you do, such as the topographical profile of the landscape and the size of holdings. Those do make a big difference!

Small paddy agriculture, many in less favorable topography as opposed to larger holdings, seems to relate to the relative cost of inputs, such a fertilizer, mechanization, and so on. Do you have any thoughts or information on that?

No I have no references for you. We use lots of compost and buffalo dung on our 1 rai home organic rice paddy, and also use a different method of transplanting to get roughly double the typical Thai farmer yield. No one except other farangs is interested in learning about it....

[Pond Life]

There is a good PDF document that explains the situation: www.ec.oita-u.ac.jp/isf2011/pdf/proceedings-93-103.pdf

According to the document, mountainous terrain make the use of machines (to make fertilizers) difficult. Any ideas?

From what I am reading, the use of corn is in reaction to a demand and a need. "Corn is important in Asia as a livestock feed and a staple food, as well as a raw material for starches and sugars used in food processing and other industries." (http://www.agnet.org/library.php?func=view&style=type&id=20110725095646)

We need solutions. We know that there is a problem

Composting? Ploughing under? I notice that the average rice production per rai here is half of what other countries yield, yet no one seems interested in changing methods...

Half? Interesting! Do you have any references for this?

I wonder about the variables, of course, as you do, such as the topographical profile of the landscape and the size of holdings. Those do make a big difference!

Small paddy agriculture, many in less favorable topography as opposed to larger holdings, seems to relate to the relative cost of inputs, such a fertilizer, mechanization, and so on. Do you have any thoughts or information on that?

A discussion of rice yields here.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/679239-rice-yield-per-rai/?hl=+rice%20+yield

[MMan]

If you stay in town and spend most of your time in-doors it should not bother you much. I work indoors most of my day though go out for golf or other activities occasionally. The smoke is worst at sunrise. Then during the day thermal drafts cause the smoke to rise (I usually golf in the afternoon and have never been bothered). In March I cannot see Doi Suthep most days in the early AM from town, though by late afternoon at least a rough outline is usually visible.

The farmers in the hills have it worst.

SInce it only lasts about 2 months and I don't have emphysema or other breathing problems it does not concern me much. I figure hundreds of millions of Chinese have it far worse year round and it hasn't killed them yet.

[WinnieTheKhwai]

Well, today was interesting.. Did you all notice the weather/wind change this afternoon? This could be the end of the cool times, and into the hazy times.

It's interesting how this change of wind direction brought on significantly hazy weather, instantly.

It's not like there were suddenly fires in the immediate area; it's a weather change that brings on the crap. Will be looking at the weather map at the TMD site, but it's possible (likely?) that the hazy times kick off today.

[jonwilly]

06.40 this morning and I can only see a couple of Kilos from my Condo compared with a view across town to the Doi Saket 'mountains' only two days ago.

john

[CobraSnakeNecktie]

yup it's game on today.

Home Pro has a good deal on 3M Fiiltrete. 2 packs tapde together for 229 baht.

I looked at the price at Big C and it seemed a lot more expensive. 299 for one pack. Not sure if the packs were equal amounts of paper.

At Home pro its in one of the center isles toward the rear of the store.

[T_Dog]

We have been surprised that there has been no burning up in the hills yet, but that all changed tonight. Several long string-of-pearls of fire up in the hills where the locals either drag a flaming log behind a motorcycle or walk and light the brush with a torch. I think this signals the official start of the smokey season. Photo from a few minutes ago.

[Tywais]

Latest screen shot of the firemap for Feb. 21 shows a significant change in fire density over the last snapshot I posted. Also noticed the haze as I was driving up Suthep road to CMU.

[T_Dog]

Latest screen shot of the firemap for Feb. 21 shows a significant change in fire density over the last snapshot I posted. Also noticed the haze as I was driving up Suthep road to CMU.

Capture.JPG

Queue up the Jaws music.....

[Jose]

Latest screen shot of the firemap for Feb. 21 shows a significant change in fire density over the last snapshot I posted. Also noticed the haze as I was driving up Suthep road to CMU.

Capture.JPG

Time to escape...

Edited February 21, 2014 by Jose

[jonwilly]

The "smog" is certainly settling in, visibility down to a couple of Kilos maximum.

Normal for this time of year.

john

[WinnieTheKhwai]

10-15 km (10am), but yes.

Edited February 22, 2014 by WinnieTheKhwai

[naboo]

Yesterday the sky was grey with pollution. Today nearly blue again!

[T_Dog]

10-15 km (10am), but yes.

Our visibility in Mae Taeng is under 5 km at the moment, likely due to the burning last night in the hills.

[T_Dog]

10-15 km (10am), but yes.

Our visibility in Mae Taeng is under 5 km at the moment, likely due to the burning last night in the hills.

Spoke too soon as the winds came up and visibility is better than 15 km. Can see the mountains again and they are still smouldering away with active fires burning.

[Jose]

1:45pm: visibility down to about 5km in Sansai - mountains 7km away are completely invisible now.

[WinnieTheKhwai]

Guess we got some respite.. Long may it last.

[Mapguy]

I haven't checked back, but the following website may have been noted before (probably by Tywais). Anyway, it is an interesting site so here it is although I question how active it is.

You can subscribe, but the way to satellite feeds from UMD for a geographical area you designate. Check with UMD on how to go about that.

Otherwise, look at the history of the gruesome 2007 fire season on the left of the page. That was a very, very bad year.

http://satellite.ehabich.info/index_13.html

Edited February 24, 2014 by Mapguy

[Mapguy]

Have received in the past week or so the first satellite reports for our area. Very little is shown. if you are out and around, you will probably have seen much more burning/burnt straw than the satellites have seen. They are not stationery over this area. The coordinates reported tend to be off a bit, but not far, just fairly consistently a couple of hundred meters east of likely locations. So far, just a couple of blazes south of Rte1095 in a farming area west of Mae Taeng and one in the Samoeng area. The satellites simply don't pick up everything, especially small fires and fires of short duration.

If you read the Chiang Mai Mail you can read the press release about some of the forest fire management efforts the government has been planning.

Edited February 24, 2014 by Mapguy

[mikey88]

"The Mist" narrative looks like wishful thinking to me. The Thais I speak to use it as well.

I'm on the 8th floor looking out about 180 degrees with the mountain in front. I've been here since late November and there has a visible brown haze pretty much every day to the extremities. It seems obvious to me that it is vehicle pollution. Car and motor bike.

No boubt it gets worse with the burning.

[FolkGuitar]

Looking at the figures, Chiang Mai is at 66 pm10 while Rayong is at 246... I'm happy to be in Chiang Mai!

[T_Dog]

Looking at the figures, Chiang Mai is at 66 pm10 while Rayong is at 246... I'm happy to be in Chiang Mai!

Yikes, did not realize Rayong got so bad. We have indeed been lucky up here in Chiang Mai this year. We had three large fires visible from the house that burned up in the mountains for four days, but the winds carried all the smoke northward. Let's hope the winds keep us clear this year.

[Tywais]

I haven't checked back, but the following website may have been noted before (probably by Tywais). Anyway, it is an interesting site so here it is although I question how active it is.

I keep the active, auto-updated map on the 1st page of this topic. It is updated at their site every 8 hours. I have been taking screen shots and posting them here to keep a historical view of the change as the firemap updates continuously.

Today, 24 Feb at 9:25AM

[FolkGuitar]

<script type='text/javascript'>window.mod_pagespeed_start = Number(new Date());</script>

Looking at the figures, Chiang Mai is at 66 pm10 while Rayong is at 246... I'm happy to be in Chiang Mai!

Yikes, did not realize Rayong got so bad. We have indeed been lucky up here in Chiang Mai this year. We had three large fires visible from the house that burned up in the mountains for four days, but the winds carried all the smoke northward. Let's hope the winds keep us clear this year.

Appearantly the numbers change quickly with just a shift in the wind. Rayong is now down to 61

Here is the chart of the stats for all over the Kingdom:

http://aqmthai.com/

I keep the active, auto-updated map on the 1st page of this topic. It is updated at their site every 8 hours. I have been taking screen shots and posting them here to keep a historical view of the change as the firemap updates continuously.

Thanks for this. I hadn't noticed it before, and it's good information!

Edited February 27, 2014 by FolkGuitar

[Mapguy]

I haven't checked back, but the following website may have been noted before (probably by Tywais). Anyway, it is an interesting site so here it is although I question how active it is.

I keep the active, auto-updated map on the 1st page of this topic. It is updated at their site every 8 hours. I have been taking screen shots and posting them here to keep a historical view of the change as the firemap updates continuously.

Today, 24 Feb at 9:25AM

Capture.JPG

This is a good map to get a sense of the culturally dominant agricultural rice culture practiced in SE Asia. It does not give you a local view, but it does rather scare the sh@t out of you every year. Like burning in Hades, a common bad dream, I suppose! These progressive maps will actually get progressively a lot worse in the next month.

I wish Priceless were back, or that someone with his statistical sensibilities would take his place to post a "run" of the current statistics (and comparative numbers over the years) for Muang Chiang Mai. If you have done any research, you'll have realized that the number of monitoring stations in Chiang Mai is very, very, very limited, and, understandably,equally limited in the areal accuracy, but there is a fairly decent indication of what the broader problem is in this valley surrounded by mountains that hem in surface pollution during the nasty season (primarily mid-February through mid-April). So, much to the distress of Priceless and his methodical scientific sensibilities, i have always maintained that you should also trust your nose, not just the numbers.

So, what about this year? Well, I am holding my nose! So far, we seem to be doing fairly well comparatively, to give a rough estimate. Let us hope that the positive reinforcement activities of the Thai government might actually be beginning to work --- but they appear mainly in preventing and putting out fires in the forest, not focused upon the much more difficult business of persuading and providng the right economic incentives for stopping agricultural burning. That is a very, very difficult socioeconomic nut to crack.

So, if you choose to stay, suck it up! Literally. Yes, there are some masks and filters to provide some relief locally. Move out momentarily to cleaner climes, if you have the wherewithal. Here, walk, don't ride your pollutionmobiles! Screw the malls! Shop locally! Don't burn leaves in your garden! Learn how to suggest to others it is a bad idea without belaboring them! There are an infinite number of micro solutions, but acting positively beats pissing into a polluted breeze like complaining here!