Review of Land Fires and Smoke Haze Situation for Second Fortnight of December 2019
1.1 Under the prevailing dry weather, hotspots with localised smoke plumes were detected in the Mekong sub-region. In particular, there was an increase in hotspot activities in Thailand and Cambodia, and the smoke haze from some of these hotspots brought hazy conditions to parts of Thailand and Cambodia. In central Thailand, smoke haze was blown by the prevailing winds to the southwest, and there were reports of Unhealthy to Very Unhealthy air quality on many days in Saraburi province.
1.2 In the southern ASEAN region, hotspot activities were mostly subdued due to the rainy weather.
Figure 1: Distribution of hotspots detected in the Mekong sub-region based on NOAA-20 satellite surveillance, and mean winds at 2500ft in the second fortnight of December 2019 (Source of wind data: JMA).
Figure 2: Himawari-8 satellite image shows smoke haze from hotspots in central Thailand and Cambodia, and localised plumes from isolated hotspots in Myanmar.