Smoke, Smog, Dust 2014 Chiang Mai

[chooka]

All these expert reports coming out of China and Bangkok mean nothing to the people of Chiangmai who are chocking to death. All is well I assure you from our air conditioned offices a thousand kms away

[T_Dog]

Chiang Mai looks to be the center of the universe, burning-wise in SE Asia. The image below is not very useful, but you can use Google Earth to zoom in to your area after you download a KML file for SE Asia from this website Tywais posted earlier: https://earthdata.nasa.gov/data/near-real-time-data/firms/active-fire-data Our air up in Mae Taeng took a drastic downward turn overnight.

[WinnieTheKhwai]

Agreed; I'm not sure that those pics with arbitrary zoom-settings, arbitrary time period (day? week?) and an arbitrary (but fixed) fire icon size is very indicative of what's going on.

Clearly it's going to be hazy/smoggy the second half of March, but I can tell people that looking at a calendar. Not sure you can tell how bad it's going to be by looking at the fire map. (Or if so, how.)

In other words, I have no idea if what I'm looking at is good, bad, or normal for the time of the year.

And no idea if and how much this is going to impact the haze over the coming days. (Trust me, I wish I did know; the only way I can somewhat predict things is by looking at surrounding provinces' PM10 readings.)

Now for some wild guess work, in the above I see forest fires in the hills, but the Chiang Mai / Lamphun valley (where rice is grown) seems relatively clear of major fires. I wonder if that means if there is less rice field burning. But with nothing to compare it to, it's all a bit pointless to try and say anything.

I often wish we had Priceless back to painstakingly analyse stuff over time.

Edited March 13, 2014 by WinnieTheKhwai

[Joop50]

Here in Thaton, Mae Ai district, there was an immense forest burning on the mountains yesterday afternoon and evening. Its a border area with Burma.
There is a strong breeze from the west/north-west which drove/drives the smoke to the east. Last days lots of smoke were coming from Burma but still the situation here is much better than what I have experienced in Chiang Mai. I notice no burnings in the rice fields.

Edited March 13, 2014 by Joop50

[T_Dog]

The day saved again by the wind. Looks like more wind is on the way which is good news this time of year.

http://www.tmd.go.th/en/warningwindow.php?wID=4075

[MESmith]

BBC forecasting rain on Saturday, & thunderstorms on Monday.

Hope they're right

[T_Dog]

BBC forecasting rain on Saturday, & thunderstorms on Monday.

Hope they're right

Me too! I put on my N95 mask today and took the mountain bike up in the hills and ran into a hunter. I asked him why there was so little burning this year and he responded "mai hang" or not dry. Still quite green up there. If we get some rain, maybe it will stay that way until the regular rains start.

[MESmith]

The day saved again by the wind. Looks like more wind is on the way which is good news this time of year.

http://www.tmd.go.th/en/warningwindow.php?wID=4075

Yep, as we drove home this afternoon, you could see the wind was from the southish by the direction the giant plumes of smoke were blowing. Fortunately, away from our place. Other folk, not so lucky.

[chooka]

Agreed; I'm not sure that those pics with arbitrary zoom-settings, arbitrary time period (day? week?) and an arbitrary (but fixed) fire icon size is very indicative of what's going on.

Clearly it's going to be hazy/smoggy the second half of March, but I can tell people that looking at a calendar. Not sure you can tell how bad it's going to be by looking at the fire map. (Or if so, how.)

In other words, I have no idea if what I'm looking at is good, bad, or normal for the time of the year.

And no idea if and how much this is going to impact the haze over the coming days. (Trust me, I wish I did know; the only way I can somewhat predict things is by looking at surrounding provinces' PM10 readings.)

Capture.JPG

Now for some wild guess work, in the above I see forest fires in the hills, but the Chiang Mai / Lamphun valley (where rice is grown) seems relatively clear of major fires. I wonder if that means if there is less rice field burning. But with nothing to compare it to, it's all a bit pointless to try and say anything.

I often wish we had Priceless back to painstakingly analyse stuff over time.

San Sai has not been to bad today but the last 3 or 4 days were hell, burning eyes and extremely hard to breathe. Still not comfortable but can spend 10 or 15 minutes outside.

[anon11]

Buy a decent face mask reduce exercise outside ( even with mask ) keep the windows closed ...if you have a chest complaint see your doctor BUT get a good mask

[Tywais]

Thick, thick, thick. Today was the worse I have seen it this year. Heavy white haze all the way from Mae Hia to Chiang Mai University. At CMU could not see Doi Suthep temple.

PM10 at Yupparaj of 131, at City Hall 129. Max safe level is 120. Still not that high relative to previous years for this month. 172 at Lampang, highest in the country.

[khwaibah]

[Joop50]

Thaton 2 days ago. The wind turned last night to south-east (more pollution) but now back to north-west again. The last rain over here was on 13 december, hope the weather forecast is right.

[eyecatcher]

Alert!

Rain in Nimmen today 5.45pm.

Lasted about 30 seconds.

Went to make sure no one was using a hosepipe.

Where did it go, why 30 seconds.

Talk about someone taking yer toys off yer.

[MESmith]

Alert!

Rain in Nimmen today 5.45pm.

Lasted about 30 seconds.

Went to make sure no one was using a hosepipe.

Where did it go, why 30 seconds.

Talk about someone taking yer toys off yer.

Told you yesterday http://www.bbc.com/weather/1116869?day=0

[wolfmuc]

Thick, thick, thick. Today was the worse I have seen it this year. Heavy white haze all the way from Mae Hia to Chiang Mai University. At CMU could not see Doi Suthep temple.

PM10 at Yupparaj of 131, at City Hall 129. Max safe level is 120. Still not that high relative to previous years for this month. 172 at Lampang, highest in the country.

Yupparaj has seen 207 today, Lampang (38t) 232 and here in Phrae we had 304.

All aqmthai.com - What's the reason for our different results?

Btw aqicn.org shows CM 89, Lampang 134, Phrae 103.

Clueless.

[T_Dog]

Thaton 2 days ago. The wind turned last night to south-east (more pollution) but now back to north-west again. The last rain over here was on 13 december, hope the weather forecast is right.

Burning A4.jpeg

Burning A1.jpeg

Joop.... Incredible photos there. Wow!

[T_Dog]

Thick, thick, thick. Today was the worse I have seen it this year. Heavy white haze all the way from Mae Hia to Chiang Mai University. At CMU could not see Doi Suthep temple.

PM10 at Yupparaj of 131, at City Hall 129. Max safe level is 120. Still not that high relative to previous years for this month. 172 at Lampang, highest in the country.

Coming in from the north today, we thought CM was fairly clear!

[MESmith]

Thick, thick, thick. Today was the worse I have seen it this year. Heavy white haze all the way from Mae Hia to Chiang Mai University. At CMU could not see Doi Suthep temple.

PM10 at Yupparaj of 131, at City Hall 129. Max safe level is 120. Still not that high relative to previous years for this month. 172 at Lampang, highest in the country.

Coming in from the north today, we thought CM was fairly clear!

Really bad SK way. Tons to do in the garden, but my eyes don't like it

[WinnieTheKhwai]

Thick, thick, thick. Today was the worse I have seen it this year. Heavy white haze all the way from Mae Hia to Chiang Mai University. At CMU could not see Doi Suthep temple.

PM10 at Yupparaj of 131, at City Hall 129. Max safe level is 120. Still not that high relative to previous years for this month. 172 at Lampang, highest in the country.

Note that the standard figure is a daily average. That assumes that there will be many values higher than that, and many values lower than that. It doesn't matter too much in the example you gave as today's daily average will end up in the 120-130 region anyway, but it's important to keep this separate when comparing numbers.

Yupparaj has seen 207 today, Lampang (38t) 232 and here in Phrae we had 304.

All aqmthai.com - What's the reason for our different results?

Btw aqicn.org shows CM 89, Lampang 134, Phrae 103.

Clueless.

Look up. (Post 177) : http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/692704-smoke-smog-dust-2014-chiang-mai/page-8#entry7550998

Edited March 14, 2014 by WinnieTheKhwai

[wolfmuc]

Thick, thick, thick. Today was the worse I have seen it this year. Heavy white haze all the way from Mae Hia to Chiang Mai University. At CMU could not see Doi Suthep temple.

PM10 at Yupparaj of 131, at City Hall 129. Max safe level is 120. Still not that high relative to previous years for this month. 172 at Lampang, highest in the country.

Note that the standard figure is a daily average. That assumes that there will be many values higher than that, and many values lower than that. It doesn't matter too much in the example you gave as today's daily average will end up in the 120-130 region anyway, but it's important to keep this separate when comparing numbers.

Yupparaj has seen 207 today, Lampang (38t) 232 and here in Phrae we had 304.

All aqmthai.com - What's the reason for our different results?

Btw aqicn.org shows CM 89, Lampang 134, Phrae 103.

Clueless.

Look up. (Post 177) : http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/692704-smoke-smog-dust-2014-chiang-mai/page-8#entry7550998

WinnieTheKhwai,

Thanks for clearing that up again!

W.

[Tywais]

Thick, thick, thick. Today was the worse I have seen it this year. Heavy white haze all the way from Mae Hia to Chiang Mai University. At CMU could not see Doi Suthep temple.

PM10 at Yupparaj of 131, at City Hall 129. Max safe level is 120. Still not that high relative to previous years for this month. 172 at Lampang, highest in the country.

Yupparaj has seen 207 today, Lampang (38t) 232 and here in Phrae we had 304.

All aqmthai.com - What's the reason for our different results?

Btw aqicn.org shows CM 89, Lampang 134, Phrae 103.

Clueless.

I used the number on page one and didn't take the time to investigate the graph. It seemed the number was too low from what I was seeing. As WTK mentioned that first page number, 131, must be the running average.

Yupparaj

Yupparaj Chart

[Mapguy]

Well, all the above is consistent with LOCAL burning with prevailing winds. Never mind Burma! And the Southern and far Northern reaches of the valley, let alone the province. These are NOT covered by the Doi Suthep - Pui FIRMS reports. This is a cumulative 2014 report that only includes large enough fires that happen to be alight during satellite passes. I have mislaid the 12 March report of 15 fires. I suspect that they reflected the same scene. A lot of the newer blazes seem to be forrest in origin rather than obviously agricultural burning.

Edited March 14, 2014 by Mapguy

[Tywais]

March 14, 2014 11:30PM

[Tywais]

MODIS significant fire spots over 24 hour period

March 14, 2014

[dasboot]

Hope you don't mind someone from Chiang Rai joining in your thread,I live within 20 mins of the border at Measai,Monday we travelled by bus across the country to Mukdahan,then down to Ubon . We live close to Doi Tung,maybe 25 mins on our bike,when we left we could no longer see it,I was also amazed the smoke appeared to be at the same density across the entire top of the

Sent from my iPad using ThaiVisa app

[WinnieTheKhwai]

...of the .... I can't see your post through the smog!

But yea, Chiang Rai (and MHS) get really nasty. Although it's a relatively good year there so far, too.

[chooka]

Hope you don't mind someone from Chiang Rai joining in your thread,I live within 20 mins of the border at Measai,Monday we travelled by bus across the country to Mukdahan,then down to Ubon . We live close to Doi Tung,maybe 25 mins on our bike,when we left we could no longer see it,I was also amazed the smoke appeared to be at the same density across the entire top of the

Sent from my iPad using ThaiVisa app

Heading up to Doi Suthep this morning, will be interesting if I can see Chiangmai from up top.

[eyecatcher]

No chance.....haven't even been able to see the airport runway since september from Doi Suthep.

Yesterday morning I was parked at the end of the runway, you couldn't see the other end and all the landing lights are on..... probably all day now.

[WinnieTheKhwai]

Hope you don't mind someone from Chiang Rai joining in your thread,I live within 20 mins of the border at Measai,Monday we travelled by bus across the country to Mukdahan,then down to Ubon . We live close to Doi Tung,maybe 25 mins on our bike,when we left we could no longer see it,I was also amazed the smoke appeared to be at the same density across the entire top of the

Sent from my iPad using ThaiVisa app

Heading up to Doi Suthep this morning, will be interesting if I can see Chiangmai from up top.

You can't. Unless you go around 3pm, then you have a small chance. Thiss shouldn't come as too much of a surprise: if you can't see the mountain from town, you won't suddenly see town from the mountain. It's not rocket surgery.