API flares up all over country
Loh Foon Fong, Florence A. Samy and Shaun Ho The Star 12 Jul 11;
PETALING JAYA: A major part of the country has been enveloped in haze due to fires in Sumatra and Borneo and there is no immediate respite in sight.
Malaysians woke up to poor visibility and lack of fresh air as they made their way to work yesterday.
The air quality worsened as the day drew on. Moderate air quality readings of between 51 and 100 were recorded in 82% or 43 areas as of 5pm yesterday compared to 73% or 36 areas at 11am and 67% at 5pm Sunday.
The remaining areas were still within the healthy Air Pollutant Index (API) readings of between 0 to 50.
The South East Asia Fire Danger Rating System also listed as “extreme” (very high probability) for fires to start and spread in most parts of the peninsula, Sumatra, Sarawak and a big portion of Kalimantan. It also noted that grass fuels were highly flammable.
As of 5pm yesterday, Bukit Rambai in Malacca recorded the worst air quality reading at 83, followed by Nilai in Negri Sembilan at 80. Nine areas recorded readings of above 70 including Shah Alam (79) and Port Klang (77) while Petaling Jaya had an API of 67.
The API for Sabah and Sarawak varied between 24 and 68.
The Meteorological Department (MMD) website recorded hazy weather for most of its 40 stations with visibility levels dipping in some areas in the country, including Petaling Jaya where levels dropped to 2km for several hours yesterday. Visibility levels improved in most areas by 8pm including Sepang (KLIA) which went from 1.5km at 4pm to 9km by 8pm.
However, levels still remained poor for Petaling Jaya (6km), Sitiawan (3km), Kuantan (6km) and Kuala Terengganu (6km) as of 8pm.
According to an MMD spokesperson, the weather is expected to be dry at least until tomorrow where showers are forecasted in the west coast of the peninsula and thunderstorm in the east coast.
Isolated thunderstorms are only expected to kick in later in the week.
“Sabah and Sarawak are expected to be fair today with showers in Limbang, Miri, Sandakan and the interiors of Sabah and Tawau,” the spokesperson said, adding that haze was a normal occurrence at this time of the year due to the dry weather conditions.
He added that wind conditions could have blown the smoke plumes here.
Satellite images showed 217 hotpots in Sumatra as of Sunday morning and 26 yesterday. Over 309 hotspots were detected for Borneo and 13 for the peninsula as of yesterday morning.
According to the Singapore weather website’s regional hazemap, scattered hotspots with some smoke plumes were detected over central Sumatra yesterday, adding that showers had eased hotspots in other parts of Sumatra.
Hotspots could go undetected due to cloudy or overcast conditions.
Dry conditions are expected to persist until September due to the southwest monsoon.
Malaysia: Haze disrupts several flights
Roy See Wei Zhi, Ahmad Fairuz Othman and Jassmine Shadiqe New Straits Times 12 Jul 11;
JOHOR BARU: The haze played havoc with flights at Sultan Ismail International Airport here yesterday morning when visibility on the runway dropped to a mere 20m.
A combination of haze and high moisture levels was identified as the cause for the low visibility which affected several flights.
Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia and Firefly flights were delayed for almost two hours.
A spokesman for Sultan Ismail International Airport said the overall visibility was about 300m and the Department of Civil Aviation Malaysia had directed the airport to temporarily cease operations.
The first flight from Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport in Subang to here, which was scheduled for take-off at 7.30am, was delayed for about two hours.
"Pilots reported that they could not see beyond 20m from the cockpit," said the spokesman.
"The haze lingered on the tarmac for almost two hours before it cleared and flight operations resumed."
Both AirAsia flights AK5442 to the Penang International Airport and AK5271 to the Low-Cost Carrier Terminal (LCCT) were scheduled to take off at 8.40am but were delayed until 10.20am and 10.24am respectively.
Firefly's FY2140 to Subang Airport was also grounded from 8.45am to 9.20am.
MAS flight MH1038, which was scheduled for departure at 8.50am, took off at 10.21am while flight MH1037 from the Kuala Lumpur International Airport to here was delayed for more than an hour.
AirAsia flight AK5443 from Penang landed at Sultan Ismail International Airport at 9.50am instead of 8.15am while flight AK5270 from the LCCT was delayed for almost 11/2 hours.
Thick fog causes MAS flights to be rescheduled
The Star 12 Jul 11;
PETALING JAYA: Malaysia Airlines has rescheduled three of its flights but this was due to fog, not haze.
“MAS rescheduled flights between KL International Airport (KLIA) and Johor Baru yesterday due to the thick fog around Senai Airport in the morning,” it said in a statement here yesterday.
Flight MH 1034, which was to depart from Johor Baru to KLIA at 7am, was rescheduled to 9.10am while Flight MH 1037 from KLIA to Johor Baru was postponed to 8.51am from 7.35am.
This resulted in the return flight of MH 1038 from Johor Baru to KLIA to depart at 10.11am instead of 8.50am.
MAS operations director Capt Mohamed Azharuddin said the rescheduling was necessary to ensure passengers’ safety.
“As soon as the fog cleared up, we quickly resumed flight operations to minimise inconvenience to our passengers,” he said.
Media relations manager S. Anbarasu said no MAS flight had been affected by haze from fires in Sumatra and Borneo.
As at press time, no AirAsia flight had been disrupted.
