The haze which blanketed almost the whole of Klang Valley due to forest fires and open burning has improved slightly in the evening.

Only four areas are still categorised as unhealthy as at 5pm, namely Petaling Jaya (101), Banting (114) in Selangor, Batu Muda (104) in Kuala Lumpur and Nilai (114) in Negri Sembilan.

 

According to the department’s API, a reading of 0-50 denotes good air quality; 51-100 (moderate); 101-200 (unhealthy); 201-300 (very unhealthy); above 301 (hazardous to human health).

 

The conditions this morning worsened despite cloud seeding efforts which saw a heavy downpour in parts of the Klang Valley this morning.

 

The Malaysian Meteorological Department (JMM) has attributed the haze this time round to domestic sources.

 

JMM director-general Che Gayah Ismail was quoted by Bernama as saying last week that the haze had no connection with Indonesia despite the country being engulfed in its own haze from forest fires in Riau.

 

"This time, the haze is caused by domestic sources and the lack of rainfall has caused such things as gas, dust, ash and particles to float in the atmosphere and not fall down to the earth," she was quoted as saying.

 

According to the Meteorological Service Singapore, the regional wind is blowing southwards, sparing Malaysia of the worse haze from Sumatra.