Smog

[JR8]

Visibility is down to about 2 miles courtesy of the smoke.

Is this the same issue (illegal logging/forest burning over in Indonesia), that was blighting the country first time I lived here - c20 years ago?

It seems surprising that the problem persists... and it's only June...

p.s. I don't think I'd cherish being a pilot going into Changi, amongst this...

[bgd]

I don't recall it being this bad for a while. However having recently moved to a building with a view it may be that I just haven't noticed.

Something I found on a website...

--Transboundary smoke haze from land and forest fires during the traditional dry period between June and October has been a recurrent feature in the southern ASEAN region in the past few decades. These annual fires are caused mainly by land clearing and “slash and burnâ€Â

[JR8]

So it is the same; the neighbours 'slash and burn' agriculture.

I remember driving across north Borneo last year, and for hundreds of miles it was like a moonscape of burnt-off arable (palm) plantations... really, you could have been driving across the moon.

[JR8]

I've checked two newspapers, and they no longer seem to publish a daily 'Smog index', like they used to. Maybe they've just given up?

Mind you, I remember staying at the Park Royal (Beach Road) Serviced Apartments back in the '94, and not being able to see the ECP, about c800 metres away. In fact I captured that on home-vid, that was pretty bad! [In due course I'll see if I can work work out how to capture a 'still image' from the video].

Funny, I've always associated smog with industry rather than agriculture. But I have to say SG is by far the most polluted city that I've lived in.

Doing some digging around I find:
URL CENSORED DUE TO COPYRIGHT ISSUES
PSI at 8am = 60/Moderate

http://www.weather.gov.sg/wip/web/ASMC/Haze_Information
Background on haze.

[zzm9980]

It's pretty thick today. I can barely see ships in the strait, when normally I can clearly see buildings and the radio antennas on Batam.

[JR8]

It's pretty thick today. I can barely see ships in the strait, when normally I can clearly see buildings and the radio antennas on Batam.

You have a simpler gauge to measure it by than me.

You: Can you see Batam?

Me: Can I see the Batman building?

[zzm9980]

Me: Can I see the Batman building?

Eww, I hate that building. So ugly and out of place. Except for during a very dark afternoon thunder storm.

[JR8]

Me: Can I see the Batman building?

Eww, I hate that building. So ugly and out of place. Except for during a very dark afternoon thunder storm.

Yes agreed... think we'd had this discussion before. It reminds me of 1930s big-city America (Chicago, Vegas, NYC?)

... and to think they could have tried to do something with the style, grace and wow factor of KLs Petronas Towers...

[bgd]

Much worse today. I can't even see the sea and I can normally see Batam.

Cycled in. All my kit smells of smoke.

[Sergei82]

Screw those bastards!!!

I have dry cough for 4 days already, throat is sore as shit! My gf's eyes are red as tomatoes - we 1st thought, its bcuz of contact lenses, but wearing specs wun help! Came to the office today - lots of folks with 1 or 2 red eyes.

Drop a nuke on those neanderthals!!! At least a small one...

[Max Headroom]

Much worse today. I can't even see the sea and I can normally see Batam.

Cycled in. All my kit smells of smoke.

More of an acrid ashtray smell today. And it's going straight for the back of the throat. Free radicals are having a field day.

[JR8]

Yes it's bad today, vis. here is down to about a mile.

p.s. Thank God I don't have asthma...

[Addadude]

http://www.nea.gov.sg/psi/

According to the the NEA's PSI web page:

PSI: 65 - 74
(Moderate)
At 8am on 17 Jun 2013

PM2.5: 46 - 57 ÃŽ¼g/m3
At 8am on 17 Jun 2013

3-hr PSI: 57
At 10am on 17 Jun 2013

Which is complete BOLLOCKS! "Moderate" my backside.

[JR8]

Apparently the NEA have something of a history of never reporting inconvenient bad weather/conditions (just like how it never goes over 35c here, a level that requires evacuations and similar).

Vis. is way down from this morning. Maybe 1-1.5miles now. 'Everything' smells of smoke...

Reminds me of growing up in the country, and at the end of harvest neighbouring farms burning off their stubble. At least there they'd warn you (to close your windows, and take your laundry in), and it only lasted a few days at most.

[the lynx]

And they have been refusing to sign the MoU on that for ages!

Good lord, the cough! I've not been jogging/swimming for the past few days because of that.