Sumatra Dry Air Brings Haze To Parts Of Sarawak

Sumatra Dry Air Brings Haze To Parts Of Sarawak

25 September 2006

published by www.bernama.com.my

Kuching, Malaysia — Dry wind from Sumatra has brought back the haze to Sarawak with two of its areas recording unhealthy Air Pollutant Index (API) readings.

Sarawak Meteorological Department spokesman said the current haze situation was temporary and the state’s air conditions would recover this weekend due to the expected wet spells during the period.

“It is forecast that rain will fall this weekend. The weather is expected to improve further when the south-westerly wind polarity becomes weaker this Thursday,” he told Bernama here Monday.

He said the weaker wind of between 30km per hour (kmph) and 40 kmph against the current one at 40-50 kmph would help the formation of clouds, and rain was expected to be a mild one at several places.

According to the Department of Environment (DoE) website, Sarikei and Sri Aman recorded API readings of over 101 (unhealthy) as of 11 am, Monday.

Meanwhile, the API readings in Sibu were 97, Petra Jaya 78, Kuching 75, Bintulu 72, Kapit 70, Samarahan 70, Miri 61 and Limbang 54.

API readings of between 0-51 are considered good, 51-100 (moderate), 101-200 (unhealthy), 201-300 (very unhealthy), 301-500 (hazardous) and more than 500 (emergency).

Meanwhile, the Malaysian Meteorological Services Department said in its website that the visibility levels at several places in Sarawak were deteriorating as of 4pm Monday.

The visibility in Kuching was 2.8 kilometres, Sri Aman and Miri each at three kilometres, Bintulu (four kilometres), Sibu (five kilometres), and Limbang (sevenkilometres).