Southeast Asia smog abates

Southeast Asia smog abates

SINGAPORE (Reuters): The weakening of the El Nio weather
phenomenon may reduce the chances of choking smog blanketing
Southeast Asia this year, weather experts said yesterday.

"El Nio is going to end soon and there is a greater chance
the situation will be much better than last year," Woon Shih Lai,
director of Meteorological Service Singapore, told a news
conference.

El Nio, which helped make last year especially dry in
Southeast Asia, has been blamed for the intensity of fires in
Indonesia as the dry weather parched forests and left them
susceptible to blazes.

The El Nio weather pattern is expected to die by the end of
June, GOP Obasi, secretary-general of the World Meteorological
Organization, said.