Review of Regional Haze Situation for February 2024 |

Review of Regional Haze Situation for February 2024

1.1 1.1 The ASEAN region continued to experience Northeast Monsoon conditions in February 2024. Over areas north of the Equator, the prevailing winds blew mainly from the northeast except over the Mekong sub-region where the winds were mostly light and variable in direction. Over areas south of the Equator, the prevailing winds blew mostly from the northwest or north (Figure 1).

1.2 1.2 The Mekong sub-region remained dry throughout the review period of February 2024, with moderate to dense haze observed over many parts of the sub-region (Figure 6) on several days. On 7 February 2024, the Alert Level 2 for the Mekong sub-region was activated in view of the increasing hotspots and risk of transboundary haze in the Mekong sub-region. Showers were observed elsewhere in the ASEAN region, except for parts of Peninsular Malaysia and the Philippines where there were brief periods of drier weather. The overall hotspot and haze situation in the southern ASEAN region and the Philippines stayed subdued (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Average Daily Rainfall and Mean Winds for February 2024. (Source: JAXA GsMaP and GFS, respectively)

1.3 1.3 Over the Mekong sub-region, the hotspot counts in February 2024 were comparable to previous years (Figure 2). Over the southern ASEAN region, the hotspot counts were higher or comparable, with a rise in Kalimantan, Peninsular Malaysia as well as Sabah and Sarawak compared to the past few years. Sabah and Sarawak recorded the highest hotspot count over 5 years (Figure 3), although the hotspot count for the southern ASEAN region during the review period remained relatively low.

Figure 2: Hotspot counts for the northern ASEAN region for February (2020-2024) based on NOAA-20 satellite surveillance.

Figure 3: Hotspot counts for the southern ASEAN region for February (2020-2024) based on NOAA-20 satellite surveillance.

1.4 1.4 Hotspot activities were persistent over many areas of the Mekong sub-region in February, with fires of higher intensity observed mainly over parts of Lao PDR and northeastern Cambodia (Figure 4 and 5). Moderate to dense smoke haze was observed mostly in the northern, western, and central parts of the sub-region (Figures 6, 7 and 8).

Figure 4: Distribution of hotspots detected in February 2024 based on NOAA-20 satellite surveillance.

Figure 5: Maximum fire intensity in February 2024 based on NOAA-20 satellite surveillance.

Figure 6: Number of days with moderate to dense smoke haze observed in February 2024 based on satellite imagery, ground observations, and air quality reports.

Figure 7: Moderate to dense transboundary smoke plumes were observed drifting from northeastern Cambodia into the southern parts of Lao PDF and eastern Thailand on 17 February 2024. (Source: Himawari-9 satellite surveillance)

Figure 8: Moderate to dense smoke haze was observed over the eastern, central and southern parts of Myanmar on 24 February 2024. (Source: Himawari-9 satellite surveillance)