Moderate haze shrouds Penang

Health concern: Komtar tower is barely visible in this picture taken from a ferry.

GEORGE TOWN: Penangites woke up to a hazy morning with the Air Pollutant Index (API) readings on the island and mainland at moderate level.

The Department of Environment online portal showed that the API reading at its monitoring station in Universiti Sains Malaysia was 59 at 6am, before worsening to 62 at 11am.

The reading deteriorated further to 64 at 2pm.

At Seberang Jaya 2, the station recorded an API of 73 at 6am before increasing to 74 at 11am, and worsened to 76 at 2pm yesterday.

Over at Prai, the API was 62 at 6am before going up to 63 at 11am. It later rose to 65 at 2pm.

An API reading of between 0 and 50 is considered good, 51 to 100 (moderate), 101 to 200 (unhealthy), 201 to 300 (very unhealthy), and 301 and above (hazardous).

The Malaysian Meteorological Department forecasts cloudy and fair weather until next week.