While the bulk of the hotspots were in Indonesia, there was no trans-boundary smoke detected in Singapore and peninsular Malaysia that had spread from neighboring Sumatra region, the agency said in a statement. Singapore and Malaysia have been plagued for decades by periodic haze caused by clouds of ash from the fires in neighboring Indonesia.
(Sept 9): Air quality in Singapore and parts of Malaysia may worsen in the coming days with Indonesian authorities warning of more forest fires in the region already in the grip of an unusually long dry weather spell.
More than 2,500 hotspots scattered throughout Southeast Asia were detected in the past week, Indonesia’s weather agency said on Sunday, citing satellite data. The number of forest fires was volatile with an increasing trend, according to Mulyono R. Prabowo, deputy of Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency.
