A wet Raya on the cards

PETALING JAYA: This year’s Hari Raya is likely to be a wet affair as rain is expected over the next three days.

According to Malaysian Meteorological Department’s forecast (MetMalaysia), the weather is expected to fluctuate between rain and shine in almost all states from today to Sunday.

The rainy weather may also be accompanied by a thunderstorm.

In a Facebook post, MetMalaysia also advised the people to plan their trip well to ensure a safe Raya.

As for the haze situation as at 6pm yesterday, Seremban was the only location with an unhealthy Air Pollutant Index (API) reading of 103, data from the Environment Department showed.

A total of six stations, namely Kota Tinggi in Johor, Sandakan and Kimanis in Sabah, Sibu and Limbang in Sarawak and Labuan recorded an API reading of 48 and below, indicating a healthy air quality.

Meanwhile, 61 stations recorded moderate air quality.

An API reading of 0-50 is good, 51-100 is moderate, 101-200 is unhealthy, 201-300 is very unhealthy, and 300 and above is hazardous.

On the regional front, the weather remained mostly dry in the Mekong sub-region yesterday with the elevated hotspot activity persisting.

“In particular, hotspot clusters were detected in Laos while scattered hotspots were detected in Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.

Moderate to dense smoke haze had shrouded many parts of the northern Mekong sub-region where the prevailing winds blew the transboundary smoke haze towards the east.

According to the Asean Specialised Metereological Centre’s (ASMC) Regional Haze Situation, slight to moderate smoke haze was also observed in much of Myanmar, southern Laos, and parts of central Thailand.

Under the widespread hazy conditions, air quality in the central and northern Mekong sub-region remained in the unhealthy to very unhealthy ranges.

Over the southern Asean region, rainy weather prevailed.

Hotspot activity continued to be subdued as a whole with only few hotspots detected in Sumatra.

“No smoke plumes were observed from satellite imagery,” it added.

As for the outlook for the coming days, dry weather is expected over the Mekong sub-region.

With the prolonged dry conditions, escalated hotspot activity and widespread hazy conditions can be expected to persist across the sub-region.

ASMC also cautioned that the risk of transboundary haze remains high, particularly over the northern parts of the Mekong sub-region.

“The prevailing winds over the northern Asean region are forecast to blow mainly from the southeast or southwest,” it said.

For the southern Asean region, wet weather is forecast for the next few days and the overall hotspot activity is expected to be subdued by shower activities.

“The prevailing winds are forecast to be southeasterly or southwesterly, and occasionally variable in direction,” it added.