Smokes Up

[ronwebb]

Its a rather boring annual topic I know but I noticed today that the smoke/haze in Chiang Mai today has a PM10 of 208. In Mae Hong Son just now, it was 428!!!!
PM10 is the indicator to watch BTW.
As I recall in Europe, Germany actually, over 50 is considered a health hazard but apparently here, over 120 is becoming unacceptable; according to the government.
You can track this mess on:

http://aqmthai.com/

and can see where its coming from on:

http://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/firemap/?x=100.5&y=19.5&z=6&g=g&v=2&r=1&i=nw&l=ad,ct

As time goes on, you will see that the practice of burning just about everything, is apparent all the way from China through to India, so you cant blame everything on Thailand to be fair.
When I was up on the Thai boarder with Burma last week, they were burning pine needles along the trails. I wonder why, for what purpose?

Oh well, such is life in a third world country.

 

[TonyBKK]

Yes, such a shame, year after year it goes on and nothing ever changes. Fortunately central and southern Thailand don't seem to suffer these fires and air pollution so now's the time to head south- Malaysia is beautiful this time of year, is incredibly biker friendly and has some stunning roads! Will have to give northern Thailand a miss until the rains come again and clean all that smoke out of the air...

:happy1:

 

[brian_bkk]

ronwebb;288636 wrote: Its a rather boring annual topic I know but I noticed today that the smoke/haze in Chiang Mai today has a PM10 of 208. In Mae Hong Son just now, it was 428!!!!
PM10 is the indicator to watch BTW.
As I recall in Europe, Germany actually, over 50 is considered a health hazard but apparently here, over 120 is becoming unacceptable; according to the government.
You can track this mess on:

http://aqmthai.com/

and can see where its coming from on:

http://firms.modaps.eosdis.nasa.gov/firemap/?x=100.5&y=19.5&z=6&g=g&v=2&r=1&i=nw&l=ad,ct

As time goes on, you will see that the practice of burning just about everything, is apparent all the way from China through to India, so you cant blame everything on Thailand to be fair.
When I was up on the Thai boarder with Burma last week, they were burning pine needles along the trails. I wonder why, for what purpose?

Oh well, such is life in a third world country.

Interesting link... All the fires are in the mountains.. Flat areas.. nothing much.

 

[ronwebb]

Yes and no Tony. I lived in Malaysia some 20+ years ago and KL gets this mess from Sumatra, as does Singapore. Sometimes in these two cities, you cant see a thing for less than one kilometer away.

Unfortunatly there is the wind Brian. It plays havoc with this stuff.

 

[TonyBKK]

ronwebb;288641 wrote: Yes and no Tony. I lived in Malaysia some 20+ years ago and KL gets this mess from Sumatra, as does Singapore. Sometimes in these two cities, you cant see a thing for less than one kilometer away.

Unfortunatly there is the wind Brian. It plays havoc with this stuff.

True true, but the smokey season down there is at a different time of year isn't it? When we were there last April everything was green, the skies were clear and the air clean all the way from Bangkok to the Cameron Highlands and back-
[h=1]April Fools Bangkok-Malaysia Ride Report- 3800km in 7 days![/h]

 

[mcrosser]

I`m here in Lao, in Sepon 30Km from the Vietnam boarder on my 28 day work cycle and we are well in to the slash and burn season. The smoke haze is terrible and the added hazard that sometime the heat detinates UXO left over from the Indochina war.
I think poor old Thailand cops so of this smoke it the winds blowing the wrong way. Can`t wait to get back home in two weeks to the clean......well cleaner then here at the mo.......Bangkok air.

 

[bsacbob]

These pictures taken two days ago in Laos on the dirt trail from Nalae to Ban Long, i was riding through this stuff for hours, there must have been thousands of acres burnt off.

 

[brian_bkk]

ronwebb;288641 wrote: Yes and no Tony. I lived in Malaysia some 20+ years ago and KL gets this mess from Sumatra, as does Singapore. Sometimes in these two cities, you cant see a thing for less than one kilometer away.

Unfortunatly there is the wind Brian. It plays havoc with this stuff.

Meaning the fire source is in the mountains mostly.. Not that the smoke stays there

I lived in Singapore too for 6.5 years..
We would get warnings form the smoke haze. But not as bad as CNX or if it was it was usually for a short period

 

[brian_bkk]

TonyBKK;288645 wrote: True true, but the smokey season down there is at a different time of year isn't it? When we were there last April everything was green, the skies were clear and the air clean all the way from Bangkok to the Cameron Highlands and back-
[h=1]April Fools Bangkok-Malaysia Ride Report- 3800km in 7 days![/h]

Correct Tony.. Different time of year.. I forget when now.

 

[David Learmonth]

Thought we'd 'got away' with the smoke problem near MaeChan this year - no such luck - last 3 days as bad as ever. No signs of burning in our vicinity. I'm told (as per every year) that it is blowing over from Laos.