Malaysia haze today: air quality by city and the haze season

Friday 9 October: of 9 Malaysian cities, the CAMS global model forecasts the most fine-particle haze in Kuala Lumpur, a daily mean of 104.8 µg/m³ PM2.5 (model value). For the official Air Pollutant Index (API) see APIMS (Department of Environment Malaysia, live Air Pollutant Index, API). SkyPollen does not yet have a pollen level for Malaysia: no pollen forecast exists for Malaysia.

• Kuala Lumpur
  PM2.5 104.8 µg/m³
• Melaka
  PM2.5 100 µg/m³
• Johor Bahru
  PM2.5 90.9 µg/m³
• Shah Alam
  PM2.5 85.9 µg/m³
• Ipoh
  PM2.5 61.5 µg/m³
• Kuantan
  PM2.5 56.6 µg/m³
• Kuching
  PM2.5 39.6 µg/m³
• Penang
  PM2.5 20 µg/m³
• Miri
  PM2.5 15.8 µg/m³

Today's daily mean PM2.5 by city, CAMS global model (Copernicus), as computed. Model values, not monitor readings.

Forecast bars: daily mean PM2.5 from the Copernicus CAMS global model, as computed, against 150 µg/m³. Green is within the WHO 24-hour guideline (15 µg/m³), amber above it, red above the WHO interim target 1 (75 µg/m³). Model values, not monitor readings.

Where the haze comes from: fire hotspots in the region

NASA satellites (VIIRS) detected 6,551 fire hotspots in the region between 8 October 14:10 and 9 October 15:35 (Singapore time): 2,154 in Sumatra and 4,355 in Kalimantan, the usual sources of haze for Singapore and Malaysia. The wind decides where the smoke goes: in the southwest monsoon (about June to October) it blows from Sumatra towards the Malay Peninsula and Singapore.

• Sumatra
  2,154
• Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo)
  4,355
• Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore
  18
• Sarawak, Sabah and Brunei
  24

Hot pixels of nominal or high confidence, VIIRS S-NPP 375 m, counted by SkyPollen within coarse outlines of each area, so the counts are approximate. One large fire can produce many detections.

When is haze season in Malaysia?

Malaysia's national monthly PM2.5, 2018 to 2024, averaged by month: the air is dirtiest in September (20.3 µg/m³ on average), in the southwest monsoon, when smoke from Indonesian fires blows across the Strait of Malacca. The worst months on record were September 2019 (52.86 µg/m³), August 2019 (31.74 µg/m³), August 2018 (25.84 µg/m³).

• January
  12.1 µg/m³
• February
  13.8 µg/m³
• March
  15.6 µg/m³
• April
  15.5 µg/m³
• May
  13.8 µg/m³
• June
  14.3 µg/m³
• July
  16.4 µg/m³
• August
  18.9 µg/m³
• September
  20.3 µg/m³
• October
  14.5 µg/m³
• November
  11.4 µg/m³
• December
  11 µg/m³

Bar length: the mean of DOSM's national monthly PM2.5 for each calendar month, 2018-2024, against 30 µg/m³ (our averaging of DOSM's published figures). A national monthly mean hides the worst days: in a haze episode single cities pass 100 µg/m³.

Across the Causeway: Singapore haze today, with NEA's PSI readings. Why dust mites, not pollen, cause most allergy here: haze and dust mite allergy.

Copernicus CAMS global forecast run of 9 October at 08:00 GMT+8, shown as computed. Malaysia's official readings are published by the Department of Environment on APIMS (Department of Environment Malaysia, live Air Pollutant Index, API); SkyPollen links to them and does not reproduce them.