Review of Land Fires and Smoke Haze Situation for First Fortnight of December 2019
1.1 Following the onset of the dry season in the Mekong sub-region, there has been a gradual increase in the hotspot activities. Isolated hotspots with localised smoke plumes were detected in many areas in the Mekong sub-region. In Thailand, smoke haze from persistent hotspots in central Thailand was blown towards the southwest by the prevailing winds. Air quality at “Very Unhealthy” levels were reported in the Samut Sakhon and Saraburi provinces on occasions.
1.2 In the southern ASEAN region, hotspot activities were largely subdued due to the rainy weather.
Figure 1: Hotspots detected in many parts of the Mekong sub-region during the period of review. There were persistent hotspots detected in central Thailand.
Figure 2: Image from Himawari-8 satellite showing smoke haze from persistent hotspots in central Thailand and localised plumes from isolated hotspots in Cambodia, Myanmar and northeastern Thailand