Smoke, Smog, Dust 2016-2017 Chiang Mai

[MESmith]

Smokey in CM today.

The smoke I see is looking mostly to the east and south from around the CMU area.

Can't see much past Kad Suan Kaew and the eastern mountain range is not visible at all.

Any folks out past the city 12+ kilometers smoke free?

Maybe it's the car exhaust fumes from all our unwanted visitors, heading back to Bangkok.

[Nowisee]

Smokey in CM today.

The smoke I see is looking mostly to the east and south from around the CMU area.

Can't see much past Kad Suan Kaew and the eastern mountain range is not visible at all.

Any folks out past the city 12+ kilometers smoke free?

Maybe it's the car exhaust fumes from all our unwanted visitors, heading back to Bangkok.

I think this is smoke from crop burn off.

[cloudhopper]

Two large forest fires seen last night on the mountains to the West. Here it comes.

[T_Dog]

That's a very good question, and one of the first to ask.

As I recall, one very large company, CP, is now "working" with the government on a campaign to mitigate burning, and the target there is primarily corn. The place to start looking, outside of rice production, is probably the biofuel and feedstock agribusiness companies.

My hunch is that while some large tenent-farmed tracts (as with rice production) may be owned by some companies but that there are more contracts made ultimately with small to medium-sized middlemen and growers. This no doubt complicates new and existing regulation and enforcement.

Not that some progress isn't being made more generally with improving recognition of the problem and changing peoples' attitudes. Just to pick a local example, look at TV Chiang Mai where, years ago, there was a persistent group of posters who denied being personally affected by air pollution! This parallels the change of attitudes (and later customary behavior and laws) regarding smoking tobacco. And then there were some who got into rather pointless lengthy presentations of information about whether or not things were better or worse in Chiang Mai over the years! We haven't seen those kinds of posts in recent years, but the number of posts asking where to buy face masks and air purifiers has increased quite a bit.

Good post. One thing to note is that mountainsides where no farming is being done are ALWAYS torched by the locals for hed top mushroom generation. A single person could light miles and miles of fire lines in a single night. Some years up in Mae Taeng, the coverage was close to 100% in the jungle trails in the mountains where we mountain bike.

[blueyeshk]

It's official smoke/fire season has started Pai under blanket and smell and taste all over- damn and I thought I got it right this time with my escape ticket it's just every year a bit earlier a bit longer. So next year January to May and soon all year long?

[blueyeshk]

That's a very good question, and one of the first to ask.

As I recall, one very large company, CP, is now "working" with the government on a campaign to mitigate burning, and the target there is primarily corn. The place to start looking, outside of rice production, is probably the biofuel and feedstock agribusiness companies.

My hunch is that while some large tenent-farmed tracts (as with rice production) may be owned by some companies but that there are more contracts made ultimately with small to medium-sized middlemen and growers. This no doubt complicates new and existing regulation and enforcement.

Not that some progress isn't being made more generally with improving recognition of the problem and changing peoples' attitudes. Just to pick a local example, look at TV Chiang Mai where, years ago, there was a persistent group of posters who denied being personally affected by air pollution! This parallels the change of attitudes (and later customary behavior and laws) regarding smoking tobacco. And then there were some who got into rather pointless lengthy presentations of information about whether or not things were better or worse in Chiang Mai over the years! We haven't seen those kinds of posts in recent years, but the number of posts asking where to buy face masks and air purifiers has increased quite a bit.

Good post. One thing to note is that mountainsides where no farming is being done are ALWAYS torched by the locals for hed top mushroom generation. A single person could light miles and miles of fire lines in a single night. Some years up in Mae Taeng, the coverage was close to 100% in the jungle trails in the mountains where we mountain bike.

Except the last part a decent post - just scroll back to 2015 post and you will find this useless and lengthily discussions.

[blueyeshk]

Pretty much nailed it; comments and post can stop because with this its all said:

https://vimeo.com/151150793

Edited January 10, 2016 by blueyeshk

[lee68]

They started burning the fields behind my house a month ago, and im my wifes village in mae on they have been burning for weeks, what makes me laugh is the locals all complain about being sick from the smoke and every night they set everything on fire!

[Puwa]

This evening the headman in our village announced that the government is asking for villagers to complete all agricultural burning by February 15. After that, fires will by monitored by satellite and the gov't will "take action" against communities that violate. Time will tell.

[blueyeshk]

This evening the headman in our village announced that the government is asking for villagers to complete all agricultural burning by February 15. After that, fires will by monitored by satellite and the gov't will "take action" against communities that violate. Time will tell.

They will have no Problem to see the red belt as usual and as usual they will ignore it.

[blueyeshk]

This evening the headman in our village announced that the government is asking for villagers to complete all agricultural burning by February 15. After that, fires will by monitored by satellite and the gov't will "take action" against communities that violate. Time will tell.

They will have no Problem to see the red belt as usual and as usual they will ignore it.

[elephant45]

Had to get a tube stuck down my throat through my nose, as I thought I might have had throat cancer (non smoker) but realize now that is the air here. Negative on any cancer but a swollen larynx or something. A guy at my condo went south for a week, and his coughing cleared up and started when returned a few days ago. He is packing his bags and breaking his lease. What a shame and we have to include all the fine particulate matter that comes from these crazy construction sites, asbestos, various fibers, concrete and metal dust etc etc. What the hell are we doing to this planet anyways?

[blueyeshk]

Had to get a tube stuck down my throat through my nose, as I thought I might have had throat cancer (non smoker) but realize now that is the air here. Negative on any cancer but a swollen larynx or something. A guy at my condo went south for a week, and his coughing cleared up and started when returned a few days ago. He is packing his bags and breaking his lease. What a shame and we have to include all the fine particulate matter that comes from these crazy construction sites, asbestos, various fibers, concrete and metal dust etc etc. What the hell are we doing to this planet anyways?

It's just the programmed by nature extinction process which has to happen if one kind brings the system out of balance but this leads to far. Don't worry men can not kill nature but the other way around it works.

Just join the burning never pick up a plastic bottle or be otherwise concerned this will only slowdown the extinction process and extend the suffering period for the future generations.

Edited January 16, 2016 by blueyeshk

[elephant45]

Blueyeshk,

Ya probably right. <deleted>....I have great memories from Michigan of drinking the water we were swimming in as kids, all spring fed and pure.

[connda]

Let the burning begin!

Out for a walk tonight and the burning has started in earnest. Three fires in the Khuntan forest behind our village in NE Lamphun province, and numerous fires throughout the village proper. Our neighbours burn almost every night. I have no idea what they are gathering to burn so frequently? Same people do it all the time. The wife and I never burn, just compost. <head shake> Thais can't seem to self-regulate for the betterment of their country, and the government (present and previous) doesn't seem to have the will to regulate. No end to this problem any year soon, imho.

Edited January 16, 2016 by connda

[connda]

This evening the headman in our village announced that the government is asking for villagers to complete all agricultural burning by February 15. After that, fires will by monitored by satellite and the gov't will "take action" against communities that violate. Time will tell.

Ah-huh. Right. When buffalos fly methinks.

[jayarc]

https://vimeo.com/151150793

Good video on the haze in Chiang Mai and the consequent health hazards.

Plenty of facts from well-qualified sources.

[Tywais]

This is Doi Suthep from Chiang Mai university a few days ago. Though 3.6km away which compounds the haze. 2nd photo, post processed the same image to show what it ideally should look like.

[blueyeshk]

https://vimeo.com/151150793

Good video on the haze in Chiang Mai and the consequent health hazards.

Plenty of facts from well-qualified sources.

After this we can close the post no further explanation, arguing if it's bad, good or worse to health or in regards of reasons and solution needed!

[elephant45]

Excellent video..it will go viral and win some award....

[vivid]

Heh heh.... in terms of Haze/Smog air pollution videos and the health effects, this would be THE BOMB Though the emphasis is more on China.

There is heckloads of info there. There are some disturbing scenes though, be warned.

[vivid]

I also found the Northern Thailand haze video on youtube. Embedding it here for easy reference :

[vivid]

Hey guys, by the way, air purifiers work. I think most of the folks have one or a couple here......but in case there are still some disbelievers, this is something that I recorded during the ending portion of the haze season here in Singapore. lol!

PS. One is a Samsung (Samsung AX40), 2 are China Air Purifiers (Midea KJ30FE and MFresh M8088A)

The 3 gadgets are air quality meters with laser particle counter modules.

Edited January 19, 2016 by vivid

[vivid]

It's actually Super El Nino conditions right now, though the effects are felt mainly over Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines.

I'm not sure how it'd affect Thailand esp Northern Thailand. Some articles do point a certain effect for Central and NE Thailand.

Eg https://www.malaysiakini.com/news/326165

http://ethailand.com/business-news/droughts-predicted-for-2016/1306/

Authorities predict that Thailand is likely to encounter a drought crisis in 2016 which may be the worst recorded in the past 50 years.

Dr Seree Suparatit, Director of Climate Change and Disasters in Rangstit University, said that in 2016 the drought crisis is the most crucial impact from El Nino. Water levels from large reservoirs such as Chao Phraya river could be reduced by 40% in comparison to the previous year. This can affect water consumption in various industries, especially agriculture.

Might need these later!

[keo]

Worst day of the year so far, I reckon. Max PM10 of 95 according to http://aqicn.org/city/thailand/chiangmai/yupparaj-wittayalai-school/

Some truly awe inspiring logic on how to tackle the problem from the Mayor...

http://www.chiangmaicitylife.com/news/new-burning-schedue-ordered-in-an-attempt-to-tackle-smoke-issue/

[vivid]

Seems like Lampang and Chiang Mai are getting hit and situation's deteriorating day by day.

[Tywais]

http://ehabich.info/images/synchro/firesmall.jpg

This seems to be the one

Seems to no longer be an active site as the last couple of years it was regularly updated. None of the maps, including your link, has been updated since December 24/25, 2015. Hope they fix it as it was a good point of reference.

Couple of other Firemap locations:

https://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/firemap/

http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/imagery/firemaps/firemap.2016011-2016020.2048x1024.jpg

This site you can get a Google Earth kml file to display - https://earthdata.nasa.gov/earth-observation-data/near-real-time/firms/active-fire-data

[llp]

PM2.5 levels are very high at the moment, 4 times above average, can someone explain this, skies look relativity clear today.

[blueyeshk]

PM2.5 levels are very high at the moment, 4 times above average, can someone explain this, skies look relativity clear today.

Can't be bothered with explain and analyzing the horrible situation have to catch my flight to Indonesia see ya in May.

[coralia]

So what is the situation now? We were thinking of going to Chiang Mai for a few days next week. If the pollution is bad already, we might as well give up. Please advise.