‘Smaze’ starting to clear–Pagasa

WORSENING PROBLEM Mindanao is more than 1,200 kilometers from the nearest Indonesian forest fires, but the haze has become a worsening problem across the island, disrupting air traffic and endangering public health. The picture above shows dense haze hanging over Davao City on Friday morning, obscuring visibility for airline pilots. DENNIS SANTOS/INQUIRER MINDANAO

The weather bureau is optimistic that the “smaze” (the combination of smoke and haze) affecting the Visayas and Mindanao should start to clear soon, as the prevailing wind is no longer blowing smoke from Indonesia’s raging forest fires toward the Philippines.

The east-to-northeast direction of the wind is keeping more smoke from equatorial Indonesia from reaching the country, said the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa).

“The prevailing wind in the next two days is from the east to northeast. There’s little chance of the haze reaching the country,” said Pagasa weather forecaster Chris Perez said.

Had the wind been blowing from the southwest, more smoke would have drifted towards the country.

Perez said the “little haze” observed in Metro Manila on Monday was not related to the Indonesian haze.

Pagasa last week acknowledged for the first time that the “thick smaze” affecting the country’s southern provinces for the past few weeks was part of the haze choking Indonesia and its neighbors.

On Monday, Pagasa’s chief climatologist Anthony Lucero said the change in the wind direction will help disperse the smaze, unless some of the smoke that have accumulated over the Pacific Ocean from weeks of forest fires may be blowing towards the country instead.

Pagasa is using the term smaze instead of smog (a combination of smoke and fog), saying that fog is more dense than haze.

Lucero said haze and fog are natural occurrences wherein water droplets are suspended in the air in the early morning and evaporate in the daytime.

When smoke and air pollutants mix with the fog and haze, the resulting combination becomes a public hazard.

In many areas in the Visayas and Mindanao, people have been advised to wear masks and stay indoors because of the heightened risk of respiratory ailments while flights have been canceled because of poor visibility.

The Department of Health yesterday said it was still verifying whether or not the deaths of two people in General Santos City from asthma attacks were linked to the smaze from Indonesian forest fires affecting certain parts of the country, from Mindanao to as far north as Bicol.

But Assistant Secretary Gerardo Bayugo reminded residents of Cebu, Palawan, Leyte provinces, General Santos City, Davao and Cotabato to continue protecting themselves from the harmful effects of haze and dust particles spawned by the forest fires in Indonesia.