Review of Regional Haze Situation for July 2022
1.1 In July 2022, the Southwest Monsoon conditions prevailed with the low-level winds blowing mainly from the southeast or south over areas south of the Equator and blowing mainly from the southwest or west over areas north of the Equator.
1.2 With the monsoon rainband located north of the Equator, the traditional wet season set-in for the northern ASEAN region during the review period. Shower activities were observed over the region on most days, except for the southern parts of Myanmar where it was drier. In the southern ASEAN region, the traditional dry season became established and drier conditions were observed over most parts of the region except for the eastern parts Sulawesi and the northern parts of Sumatra, as well as the northeastern and southwestern parts of Borneo where conditions were relatively wetter (Figure 1).
1.3 The hotspot activity in the ASEAN region was generally subdued in July 2022 under continued wet weather conditions with the total hotspot counts lower or comparable to the same month in previous years, except for Thailand where there was a slightly higher total hotspot count compared to 2020 and 2021 (Figure 2 and 3).
1.4 During the review period, isolated to scattered hotspots were detected mostly in Sumatra, the Lesser Sunda Islands, western parts of Borneo and the central parts of Viet Nam during brief periods of drier weather (Figure 4). In particular, some of the detected hotspots in Sumatra, West Kalimantan and the central parts of Viet Nam were intense (Figure 5). Towards the end of the month, localised smoke plumes were observed to emanate from the hotspots in Sumatra, Sarawak, West Kalimantan and the central parts of Viet Nam (Figure 6).
1.5 The overall fire intensity of hotspots detected over the ASEAN region was low during the review period of July 2022. There was no significant smoke haze observed via satellite imagery and ground reports (Figure 5).
