Air Quality

[eisfeld]

Hi, after a long period of rain today marked the first quite sunny and hot day as far as I am concerned.

But the air seemed to be quite bad visibility wise with what looked to me like smog. It didn't smell bad though so it could have been just extremely high humidity due to a lot of water evaporating in the heat. Best visible if one looks at some further away mountains.

Did anyone else notice this and can shed maybe a bit more light?

[Goldieinkathu]

Yes, it's been bad all day. The first thing I noticed when I got up was that I couldn't see the hills in the distance.

At one point this afternoon I thought it was from something burning but the smell seems to have gone now, but the haze still remains.

Still it's better than the rain, it's so nice to be able to get outside jobs done.

[Pakaty]

I was thinking the same thing. My guess is that we are seeing the same thing Singapore gets from the slash and burn going on in Indonesia. The weather graphics on the news today seemed to show a southerly flow rather than the westerly flow that we have been getting lately.

Edited September 18, 2014 by Pakaty

[huahinjoe]

I thought also the humidity after the huge rain, but can feel some smoke smell since last night in Kathu area...

The local health municipality center's website says air quality index good today.

http://aqicn.org/city/thailand/phuket/municipal-health-center-1/

[LivinginKata]

Still quite a low visibility view out my window. Almost smog like.

[Pomthai]

Looking out west over the ocean, same thing. I think its the annual smog unfortunately.

[keestha]

Looking out to the hills inland from Khao Lak now, I notice the same thing. Never realized the smog could go so far up north, till now the only time I ever noticed it in Thailand was once in Songhkla province. That is, if this is really the annual Sumatra thing.

[Guest]

I'll go with the huahinjoe's assumption of water vapor of the air. The air was quite stagnant as well.

There was no smell of the smog and no air irritation while I drove to town and back to the east coast.

[marcusd]

Did you go to school? Do you know what happens when rain water evaporates?

[Guest]

Did you go to school? Do you know what happens when rain water evaporates?

Did you see the fog by yourself? Todays air was not something what happens here very often. It has happened before, also during the time when there has been reports of the smog in for example Singapore.

Assuming the very low visibility during the whole day could be caused by smog is not at all wrong.

[NamKangMan]

I think it's steam, from water evaporating rapidly.

[BestBitterPhuket]

It's the Indonesian criminals burning the wood again and the smoke has now managed to get all the way to phuket. Having lived 16 years in singapore I recognized the smell immediately. This is it. If it bothers you, stay indoors in air-con which filters out the smoke. A conciliation is that this is nothing compared to the bad outbreaks in Singapore and Malaysia....and of course Indonesia. When the index hits +300 and visibility is down to a few hundred yards, it is no fun.

[Guest]

I have also lived in Singapore while there was some serious smog and this is not like that.

“The haze is a result of recent heavy rainfall combined with high levels of humidity in the atmosphere,” said San Jantharawong, chief of the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (DDPM) Phuket office.

From: http://www.phuketgazette.net/phuket-news/Smoke-the-water-Boat-operators-warned-Phuket/35940

[BestBitterPhuket]

I have also lived in Singapore while there was some serious smog and this is not like that.

The haze is a result of recent heavy rainfall combined with high levels of humidity in the atmosphere, said San Jantharawong, chief of the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (DDPM) Phuket office.

From: http://www.phuketgazette.net/phuket-news/Smoke-the-water-Boat-operators-warned-Phuket/35940

You are wrong and obviously don't know what you are talking about. This has the distinct smell if burnt wood. A haze from rainfall will not smell like burnt wood. This is bad news for Thailand as a tourist destination and they probably will continue to give us silly statements like that until the fact can't be hidden any longer.

[Guest]

I have also lived in Singapore while there was some serious smog and this is not like that.

The haze is a result of recent heavy rainfall combined with high levels of humidity in the atmosphere, said San Jantharawong, chief of the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (DDPM) Phuket office.

From: http://www.phuketgazette.net/phuket-news/Smoke-the-water-Boat-operators-warned-Phuket/35940

You are wrong and obviously don't know what you are talking about. This has the distinct smell if burnt wood. A haze from rainfall will not smell like burnt wood. This is bad news for Thailand as a tourist destination and they probably will continue to give us silly statements like that until the fact can't be hidden any longer.

Like I said before, there was not such smell overall. I did rode with a scooter for 100km today and I think I would have noticed if there had been smell of smoke in the air all the way. Even if the sense of smell is the sense which we can ignore the fastest.

I could see some local trash burning fires at some points, but that was just local pollution. Right now I'm sitting on my balcony with a mosquito coil. If I had sat here with the smoke coming to my nose for the whole day I would have done a logical, yet limited knowledge conclusion that the haze must be smog from Indonesia.

[tolsti]

Temperature inversion maybe?... no smell of smoke in Patong but definitely a haze.

[Guest]

Couple of images which shows the haze today.

[Felt 35]

I thought also the humidity after the huge rain, but can feel some smoke smell since last night in Kathu area...

The local health municipality center's website says air quality index good today.

Screen Shot 2014-09-18 at 16.39.27.jpg

http://aqicn.org/city/thailand/phuket/municipal-health-center-1/

Is it TAT who are behind that air quality index

[xylophone]

Temperature inversion maybe?... no smell of smoke in Patong but definitely a haze.

I could smell a faint trace of smoke in the haze here in Patong, and in speaking to one of the local Thai residents, they put the blame on the Indonesians burning whatever they burn over there (they also say that this was on a Thai news channel).

IMO the moisture in the air and the lack of any noticeable wind has held this smoke into forming a kind of smog/haze, which is what we see now, irrespective of what the DDPM and Phuket Gazette say!

[Valentine]

My first thought was smog & really noticeable near the airport yesterday.

[steelepulse]

It's the Indos. I was just reading something about 200 hot spots burning in Sumatra.

Edited September 19, 2014 by steelepulse

[huahinjoe]

To see the satellite data about the current haze index directions and hotspots, they have daily maps here:

http://haze.asean.org

[huahinjoe]

I thought also the humidity after the huge rain, but can feel some smoke smell since last night in Kathu area...

The local health municipality center's website says air quality index good today.

Screen Shot 2014-09-18 at 16.39.27.jpg

http://aqicn.org/city/thailand/phuket/municipal-health-center-1/

Is it TAT who are behind that air quality index

I would say i trust satellites and modern sensors rather then the tourism propaganda

[tolsti]

it seems a lot clearer now than it did at this time yesterday morning.

[keestha]

it seems a lot clearer now than it did at this time yesterday morning.

Here (Khao Lak) also, yesterday even worse that the day before, but now it seems to have gone, even though there is still hardly any wind.