Some of the other Riau districts which also had detectable hot spots such as Rokan Hilir, Meranti, Bengkalis, Dumai and Pekanbaru city are currently nil
Dumai, Riau (ANTARA News) - The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) of Riau province said the number of hot spots in Sumatra now was 17 or down from the previous day when there were 57 hot spots.

Satellite monitoring by NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) had shown , the 17 hot spots were scattered in several provinces. namely South Sumatra (seven hot spots), Aceh (two hot spots) as well as North Sumatra and Jambi with one hot spot each, an analyst of Riau`s BMKG, Marzuki, said.

As for Riau where 30 hot spots had been detected previously, there were now only six hot spots, namely in the districts of Indragiri Hulu (three hot spots), Kampar and Siak one each.

"Some of the other Riau districts which also had detectable hot spots such as Rokan Hilir, Meranti, Bengkalis, Dumai and Pekanbaru city are currently nil," Marzuki said.

He explained, the reduction of the hot spots due to the rain which fell in most Sumatra regions including Riau.

"For the last two days the rain fall almost equally in Riau but in different times. The satellite monitoring yesterday (Wednesday 6/4), in Pekanbaru rain occurred in the afternoon. While in coastal areas such as Dumai, Rokan Hilir, Bengkalis and Meranti, the rain intensity were going on day and night," Marzuki noted.

Up to two days ahead, the rain is still likely to fall in all regions of Riau with low to moderate intensity, he added.

"The rain opportunity is more concentrated in central Riau , southern and coastal regions. While the air temperature in the next few days is estimated to be between 32 to 33 Celsius," Marzuki said.

Regarding the possibility of smoke export from Sumatra mainland to neighboring countries like Malaysia and Singapore, Marzuki predicted, it was very small considering the wind direction was more likely to revolve in Sumatra.

"Dominant wind direction rotates in the west and east of Sumatra. The haze tends to a number of areas affected by fires and forest land itself, such as Jambi, South Sumatra, North Sumatra and Riau," Marzuki said.(*)

Editor: Aditia Maruli Radja
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