Students going back to school in Kuching yesterday following the improvement in the air quality. – File photo
KUCHING: The number of hotspots in Sarawak has been reduced to zero, according to the latest update from the State Disaster Management Committee.
Across the border, Kalimantan still recorded a high number of hotspots with 487 in total.
All 11 air quality monitoring stations in the state recorded ‘moderate’ Air Pollutant Index (API) readings since 10pm Monday night.
As of 8am today, the areas with high moderate API readings were Sri Aman at 84, Kuching 81, Sarikei 75 and Samarahan 74.
An API reading for good air quality is from zero to 50, 51 to 100 is moderate, 101 to 200 is unhealthy, 201 to 300 is very unhealthy and 300 and above is hazardous.
The hourly updates are available on http://apims.doe.gov.my/ and MyIPU app.
According to the Asean Specialised Meteorological Centre (ASMC), scattered showers in western parts of Borneo have helped to ease the haze situation in West Kalimantan and western Sarawak.
There were also isolated showers over southern parts of Kalimantan.
However, moderate to dense smoke haze continued to emanate from clusters of hotspots detected in Central and South Kalimantan. There were also isolated hotspots with smoke plumes detected in East Kalimantan.
For the next few days, some showers can be expected over the northern Asean region, and the prevailing winds are forecast to continue blowing from the northeast or east.
In the southern Asean region, more shower activities are forecasted over the equatorial region. The showers may help to ease the haze situation, but hotspot activities over some parts of the region may persist. The prevailing winds are forecasted to turn and blow from the east or southeast towards mid-week.