Smoke-filled skyline: Thick haze seen over Kuala Lumpur from Mid Valley City. — LOW LAY PHON/The Star
KUALA LUMPUR: As the haze makes its unwelcome return to parts of the country, the weatherman has warned that the worst is yet to come.
Malaysian Meteorological Department (MetMalaysia) director-general Muhammad Helmi Abdullah said drier weather was expected as the El Nino climate phenomenon grows in strength in the coming months.
“El Nino conditions have been detected in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, and this is expected to continue till the beginning of 2024 with a probability of over 90%.
“According to forecasts from the international agency that monitors this matter, its strength is expected to reach its maximum level at the end of 2023 and the beginning of 2024,” he told The Star.
“The phenomenon is capable of causing prolonged dry weather and may result in less rainfall that can subsequently cause forest fires to occur,” he added.
Muhammad Helmi cautioned that the increasingly dry climate combined with southwest monsoon winds would result in transboundary haze.
“The wind direction for the forecast southwest monsoon season is expected to consistently flow upwards from Malaysia’s southwest this month.
“As such, transboundary haze can occur if many widespread forest fires flare up and the wind direction is from the fire’s area,” he added.
A check of Air Pollutant Index (API) data from IQ Air yesterday found unhealthy levels across most areas in the central region of Peninsular Malaysia and west of Sarawak.
West Sarawak in particular recorded the worst overall air quality, with its three stations in Kuching, Kota Samarahan and Sri Aman recording APIs of 181, 161 and 160 respectively.
Air quality in parts of Selangor was equally poor, with Shah Alam and Putrajaya recording APIs of 180 and 159 respectively. In Negri Sembilan, Nilai recorded an index of 153.
An API reading of 0–50 is considered good, with 51–100 being moderate and 101–200 being unhealthy.
Meanwhile, Indonesia continues to battle an increasing amount of wildfires, with its Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency warning that things will peak this month, according to a report by The Jakarta Post yesterday.
The Asean Specialised Meteorological Centre’s (ASMC) website indicated that, although since reduced, wildfires continued to burn in areas of Kalimantan and Sumatra.
It said based on overnight satellite imagery, scattered hotspots emanating moderate smoke haze were detected and observed in western and southern Kalimantan.
“Over southern Sumatra, there were isolated hotspots with a few emitting slight smoke plumes as moderate to unhealthy air quality levels were reported by several stations in western Kalimantan, western Sarawak, and southern Sumatra,” it stated.
