HHII: that map is incredible. Thank you!
Guy
Just look at the wind map: windfinder.com/weather-maps/ ā¦ .25/119.18
Everything is coming from North East China, where incidentally the pollution is below average - so much green in Beijing. Of course there is much domestic pollution as well, but it is China thatās causing most of it this time.
I feel like Iām going to be an expert at this in a year or twoā¦
I donāt think you can say everything is coming from China or even most of it is coming from China. Itās seems more likely most of it is coming from Taiwan, but being added to by Chinaās pollution.
This sort of pollution is very common in central and Southern Taiwan in the winter.
Iām well aware of that, but just a few days ago the north was a mix of yellow/green and the east coast and 墾äø were completely green. Also Korea and Japan suddenly got a whole lot worse despite generally being >50% green.
If you pay attention, you can see Korea clearing up from west to east (in the direction of the wind), and now west Japan is slowly greening too.
My prediction is that first Japan will clear up, and in a couple of days Taiwan will too.
Or Iām just making things up.
You could well be right if the wind is blowing directly from China. I just donāt want people to use that as an excuse to pretend most pollution in Taiwan is not homegrown.
Looks like the apocalypse has rolled into Taichung over the last few hours with an acrid smell in the air. This IS probably the Chinese brown cloud alright.
Times like this remind me why I have no motivation to move to China.
taqm.epa.gov.tw/pm25/en/PM25A.aspx?area=4
Weāve got reading of PM2.5 up to a high of 175 in Shalu now. Thatās almost 5 times the EPA limit of 35 although many scientists say that is still too high.
Great.
Meanwhile the main map has classed the situation as āmoderateā according to PSI.
taqm.epa.gov.tw/taqm/en/AirForecastMap.aspx
Some bullshit Taiwan.
[quote=āheadhonchoIIā]Not necessarily although possible of course. Sometimes itās inversions layers that trap the polluted air close to the ground.
As usual I suspect itās a mix of homegrown and Chinese stuff.
Hereās the map.
aqicn.org/map/[/quote]
Thanks for the map, hh. Where I am in China is about the same as Taipei, according to the map, but it seems worse here: smellier and hazier.
Somebody else posted the map up last year, itās great. If you have a smartphone there are apps that can give you similar info.
This is really interesting. Literally in the last hour the pm 2.5 in most of Taichung area has doubled. I confirm that itās accurate because I was out a couple of hours ago and there was no pollution more than the regular haze.
Glad I donāt live in Shalu, now itās gone to 237 , 4 times mornings level which was still terrible according to European levels.
taqm.epa.gov.tw/pm25/en/PM25A.aspx?area=4 (click on the chart on the right to see the hourly measurements)
Of course one shouldnāt be surprised at this since Shalu also contains the worldās BIGGEST coal fired power plant.
wikimapia.org/16558956/Taichung-Power-Plant
But it does show how important real-time monitoring is and how different conditions can be in neighbouring areas and how conditions change so quickly.
For a comparison here are the numbers in London. The difference seems to be that the pollution there generally has spikes but it doesnāt stick around long. Over 40 ppm for a length of time was considered a serious pollution event there and Itās one of the worst places in Europe for air pollution even though itās average 2.5 level is 20 ppm. Compared to Asia itās nothing though.
Any apps youād particularly recommend? iOS for my sake, Android for other readers?
Rather worried about the pollution this week. I used to have the current scratchy feeling at the back of my throat all the time when I lived in Tainan, but itās been a rarity since I moved to Danshui.
There are lots of apps doing the same thing I just search for air pollution china taiwan asia etc, the one I downloaded is free , I think itās just called pm2.5 but there are other options.
Just a note: the numbers you see on aqicn.orgās map are NOT the actual amount of pollutants in the air (measured in Ī¼g/m^3), but rather a separate EPA quality scale. See this blog post for more info.
[quote=āheadhonchoIIā]Looks like the apocalypse has rolled into Taichung over the last few hours with an acrid smell in the air. This IS probably the Chinese brown cloud alright.
Times like this remind me why I have no motivation to move to China.
taqm.epa.gov.tw/pm25/en/PM25A.aspx?area=4
Weāve got reading of PM2.5 up to a high of 175 in Shalu now. Thatās almost 5 times the EPA limit of 35 although many scientists say that is still too high.
Great.
Meanwhile the main map has classed the situation as āmoderateā according to PSI.
taqm.epa.gov.tw/taqm/en/AirForecastMap.aspx
Some bullshit Taiwan.[/quote]
I checked the EPA site warning yesterday. It said in Chinese that regional weather conditions meant that that the bad air couldnāt disperse. It didnāt mention anything about pollution from China.
I think they meant it was caused by inversion and high humidity, so it was probably home grown pollution that got trapped on the ground for a few hours.
Woo hoo! 159, Unhealthy, in Danshui right now! (Although I believe that link will reflect the most recent data, rather than what Iām seeing right now.)
For sunlight and temperature, the past few days have been fantastic - and then you realize things are nowhere near as clear as they should be. These past couple of weeks have seemed especially bad.
A cool breeze blew in this evening and brought some nasty air with it. Sitting at almost 200 PM2.5 right now at Guting: aqicn.org/?city=Taiwan/Gutin
We were at 13 yesterday.
Thanks, China! 
Get those air purifiers running.
Yea. I was riding back from work this evening and was wondering about the haze. At first it looked like a fog. Then I felt the grit in my mouth as I was riding home. WTF is this. Iāve never seen this before. A dust or smog storm from China?
Yeah particularly bad.
Maybe. Really high pollution on the east coast of China right now. Took the HSR yesterday and the visibility in the countryside is very low because everyoneās burning stuff in the fields. White smog and bonfire smell in the air.
Do do they still burn off the rice stalks in china this time of year, even with all the smog from everything else?
Incredible.
They also do this in Taiwan , and it does get hazy, but usually earlier in the year.
Yesterday I saw that fogā¦ and well, I just thought it was normal fog. do we have any evidence of a pollution peak yesterday?