Klang Valley blanketed by haze

Star: KUALA LUMPUR: The haze is back in the Klang Valley but the authorities are confident that the situation, caused by a change in wind direction, is only transitory.
Visibility throughout yesterday was slightly down from over 10km on normal days to between seven and eight kilometres, particularly in areas around Petaling Jaya.
This, according to the Meteorological Department, was due to prevailing winds blowing smoke from hotspots clustered around the Riau and Jambi provinces in Sumatra in the direction of Selangor.
Deputy Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk S. Sothinathan said there was a marked increase in the number of hotspots detected over the last two days.
According to the latest satellite images, he said, there were about 90 hotspots detected in Sumatra, an increase of about 60 over the two-day period.
Latest reports from Indonesia indicated that there were hundreds of forest fires raging in Sumatra and Kalimantan.
Sothinathan said that while the haze was quite visible, there was no cause for alarm.
“None of our monitoring stations showed air pollution index (API) that could be categorised as bad or unhealthy.”
Meanwhile, in Penang, it was a clear sunny day yesterday as intermittent rains kept the haze away.
A State Meteorological Department spokesman said morning showers were expected for another day or so before the weather turned dry, which could see hazy days returning.