Haze over Riau could hit Singapore soon, says Indonesia official

IN JAKARTA - The haze over Riau could hit Singapore soon as wind speeds change, the head of the local weather station said on Friday.

'Wind movement that was previously from the north and east to the south has begun to reverse, so there's a chance the haze could reach Singapore,' said Mr Sugarin, head of the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) station in Pekanbaru.

But its impact on Singapore was not likely to be severe, he told a coordinating meeting of the task force tackling the haze at the city's airbase, as satellites detected 395 hotspots in mainland Sumatra on Friday morning, 359 of them in Riau.

The Meteorological Service Singapore forecasted in an advisory on Friday night that prevailing northeasterly winds would keep the haze in Sumatra away from the Republic for the next few days. It added, however, that 'occasional slight haze' may occur 'under stable atmospheric conditions, particularly in the morning'.