The Meteorological Department sought to allay Malaysians’ fears that another season of choking haze is crossing our shores from the fires raging in Riau, Sumatra, saying that current wind conditions in the region are saving us from the worst of the smoke … at least, until May.
Director-general of the Met Department Che Gayah Ismail told The Star Online‘s Nicholas Cheng that the north-east monsoon winds are, for now, protecting Malaysia from the brunt of the fires currently raging (again) in neighbouring Indonesia.
“That will last until March and April will see the inter monsoon, where the wind will be light and variable and we will have more rainfall, especially in the west coast of peninsular Malaysia,” she said.
“It’s in May or June when the south-west monsoon comes that we have to worry.”
For their part, Indonesian authorities have declared a state of emergency in Riau, in an effort to prevent last year’s disastrous regional haze from making a repeat performance.
Malaysia itself has its own forest fires at the moment, mostly concentrated in Pahang, Kelantan, and Sabah. The Fire and Rescue Department said these fires were still manageable at the moment, but the situation could take a turn for the worse should the dry season prolongs itself.
“Just yesterday, we had 34 bush fires reported by 2pm,” Fire and Rescue Department deputy director-general of operations Soiman Jahid said.
“If the hot weather continues, there will definitely be more. But these are small fires that we can contain and put out fast.”
The largest forest fire in Malaysia right now is happening in Sepang, near the 27.4km mark of the ELITE Highway, where 1.62ha of peat soil is up in smoke.
Firefighters have been toiling to contain that fire for the past week.
