Medan, the capital of North Sumatra province, has been covered by haze since early Sunday morning although it was not thick enough to disrupt public activities.
The head of data and information section of the regional office of the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG), Hendra Suwarta, said he believed the smoke that emerged Sunday morning did not come from North Sumatra because no fires had been detected there.
He said the smoke probable came from South Sumatra and Riau provinces where a number of hotspots had been detected.
He said that wind from southwest was currently flowing to North Sumatra providing a chance for the province to receive smoke from South Sumatra and Riau.
He said capital city Medan meanwhile was also cloudy to potentially cause rain.
He said the smoke did not cause too much problem because it had quickly vanished due to a high intensity of light and heavy rains.
“It is not too problematic But if the smoke continues to come Medan will again be covered by haze,” he said.
The head of data and information center of the National Disaster Mitigation Agency, Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, said based on Terra and Aqua satellite monitoring at 5am Sunday a total of 153 hotspots had been found in Sumatra.
Most of the hotspots were seen in South Sumatra reaching 144 while the others were monitored in Riau (3), Jambi (3), Riau Islands (2) and Aceh (1).
