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SINGAPORE \u2013 South-east Asia is in the grips of one of the worst transboundary haze episodes<\/span><\/a> caused by the fires in Indonesia, a director at the UN\u2019s weather and climate agency said on Oct 16.<\/p>\n The crisis could drag on for weeks, even months, until the winds change and rain drenches the fires there, said Ben Churchill, director of the World Meteorological Organisation\u2019s (WMO) regional office for Asia and the Pacific.<\/p>\n Speaking to The Straits Times in an interview at the WMO regional office in Tai Seng, Churchill said the ongoing El Nino event is on track to be the strongest one ever observed.<\/p>\n The onset of this weather phenomenon \u2013 which brings drier, hotter weather to the equatorial ASEAN region<\/span><\/a> \u2013 has coincided with the region\u2019s dry season.<\/p>\n This has created \u201cthe perfect storm\u201d for fires to persist and spread, Churchill said. When land is cleared using traditional slash-and-burn practices, wildfires break out.<\/p>\n He added: \u201cWe\u2019re seeing more and more unhealthy days and hours creeping in. My expectation is that this will continue.\u201d<\/p>\n Singapore has so far h<\/span><\/a>ad 13 consecutive days of unhealthy <\/span><\/a>Pollutant Standards Index (PSI) readings<\/span><\/a>,<\/span><\/a> the longest continuous stretch the country has had to endure since the 2015 haze crisis. A day is considered to have unhealthy air quality when the PSI reading at any point in the day exceeds 100 in any part of Singapore.<\/p>\n Churchill\u2019s comments come as Minister for Sustainability and the Environment Grace Fu warned at a press conference on Oct 16 that Singapore needed to brace itself for prolonged hazy conditions<\/span><\/a>, and that air quality here could even breach hazardous levels.<\/p>\n She said that the situation might improve only when the winds become lighter and more variable in direction. But that is expected to happen only in three to four weeks\u2019 time.<\/p>\n