Singapore Haze Update

The peak of the haze occurred about 2.5 weeks ago, with the worst conditions running from midday on W 19 June through midday on Sa 22 June. The air was moderately polluted for the first week after the peak and then mildly polluted last week. Starting a few days ago, the sky has cleared and pollution levels are low. Air quality is now good!

Displayed are four pairs of photos. Each pair shows the same scene. In each pair, I shot the left hand photo at about 9 AM on Friday 21 June; I shot the right-hand photo at about 9 AM this morning, Monday 8 July. Other than cropping, the photos are as recorded by the camera (no post-processing).

The third frame presents a plot of the official fine particle concentration data as reported by Singapore's National Environment Agency. The concentrations are 24-hour average values. The relevant health-based standard in the US is 35 micrograms/m3, which is shown by a horizontal dashed line. There are five monitoring stations in Singapore (west, east, south, north, and central). The three traces map out the minimum, median, and maximum recorded level each day. The worst of the haze is clearly evident, with fine particle concentrations approaching 300 micrograms/m3. The ongoing improvement in conditions since the peak is also evident.