Review of Regional Haze Situation for November 2023
1.1 The inter-monsoon conditions prevailed over the ASEAN region in November 2023. The prevailing low-level winds over the northern ASEAN region blew from the northeast to east while the winds over most parts of the southern ASEAN region were generally light and variable in direction (Figure 1).
1.2 Most of the ASEAN region experienced wet weather during November 2023, except for the northeastern and central parts of the Mekong sub-region where the conditions were relatively drier. Over the northern ASEAN region, rainfall amount was higher over the coastal areas of Viet Nam, Philippines and the southern parts of the Mekong sub-region. Widespread rainfall fell over much of the southern ASEAN region with the heaviest rainfall observed over the northern and eastern parts of Peninsular Malaysia (Figure 1). The ASMC Alert Level 0 was issued on the 14 November 2023, signalling the end of the dry season for the region.
1.3 For the southern ASEAN region, the overall hotspot activity in November 2023 was generally higher than previous years, except for November 2019 (Figure 2). Over the Mekong sub-region, the overall hotspot counts in November 2023 were mostly comparable to previous years. (Figure 3).
1.4 Throughout the review period, few to isolated hotspots were detected in the ASEAN region. While most of these hotspots were short-lived, hotspots were relatively more persistent in the central parts of Thailand and the southern parts of Myanmar and Sumatra (Figure 4). The overall fire intensity in the ASEAN region was generally low, except for the southern parts of Sumatra where relatively higher fire intensity was observed (Figure 5). Moderate smoke haze was mainly observed in the southern parts of Sumatra during the beginning of the month (Figures 6 and 7).
