REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, PEKANBARU -- Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) Pekanbaru detected 139 hotspots spread across eight districts in Riau Province, on Monday (21/9).

"The highest number of hotspots were detected in Pelalawan with 84 spots," said Head of BMKG Pekanbaru, Sugarin, Monday (21/9).

Hotspots which were potentially causing forest and land fires, were detected in Indragiri Hulu with 11 spots, Bengkalis with 14 spots, Siak and Kampar with 10 spots, Meranti with one spot, Rokan Hilir with two spots and Indragiri Hilir with seven spots.

Riau hotspots had actually declined over the last two weeks. However, since Friday (18/9) night, Terra and Aqua satellites showed that the hotspots continue to rise until this day. From 139 hotspots detected by Terra and Aqua satellite, on Monday at 05.00 pm, 88 of them were confirmed as hotspots with a confidence level above 70 percent.

"All 88 spots were detected in six districts namely Pelalawan with 52 spots, Bengkalis with 11 spots, and Siak and Indragiri Hulu with eight spots," he explained.

Sugarin explained, overall there were 284 hotspots in Sumatra. The highest number of hotspots was in Riau and South Sumatra with 139 spots and 92 spots each. While hotspots in Jambi seemed to decline to 19 spots, Lampung to 18 spots, West Sumatra to two spots, Sumatra to three spots and Bangka Belitung to 11 spots.

Land and forest fires in Sumatra Island resulted in worsening smog that have occurred since August 2015. Currently, in Riau, the visibility was between 1,000 meters to 3,000 meters.

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