Taiping's Air Pollutant Index from the Department of Environment's own monitor, which way it has moved, DOE's health advice for that level — and who decides whether schools close.
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From Town Tools. For the current version, visit https://www.towntools.org/taiping-perak-my/haze-api-reading
Below the reading sits the API 200 rule that governs school closures, with the bodies that make that decision named — because the index does not make it. Almost all of the smoke that raises this number blew across the Strait of Malacca from Sumatra, and the satellite hotspot counts further down are why.
Right now · Air Pollutant Index
API 51 — Moderate
the Taiping station, which stands in Kamunting
The pollutant driving the index right now is PM2.5.
What this band means for health
Moderate pollution that does not pose any bad effect on health.
What the Department of Environment advises
No restriction for outdoor activities to the public. Maintain healthy lifestyle.
Both paragraphs above are the Department of Environment’s own published wording for this band, not our summary of it.
Station reading from
Schools, and the API 200 rule
The reading is below 200, which is the level at which the National Haze Action Plan closes schools, kindergartens and childcare centres.
A closure is decided and announced by the education authorities, not by this index and not by this page. This page shows the reading and names who decides. Check the announcement channels below, and your own school.
Who decides
The National Haze Action Plan sets the level, but the plan itself routes the decision through the disaster management committee, and the closure order comes from the education authorities. These are the bodies involved:
Jabatan Pendidikan Negeri Perak (Perak State Education Department) — the department that orders schools, kindergartens and childcare centres in Perak to close, and through which the order reaches them
Pejabat Pendidikan Daerah Larut, Matang dan Selama — the district education office for Taiping and Kamunting — it holds the list of schools here, and it is who your own school answers to
Jawatankuasa Pengurusan Bencana Negeri Perak (Perak State Disaster Management Committee) — the committee the National Haze Action Plan routes the decision through, so that a closure is a decision taken by people rather than a consequence the index triggers by itself
Ministry of Education Malaysia — national announcements affecting schools, and the instruction the state department acts under
NADMA — Portal Bencana — the national disaster agency's portal, where state disaster committee actions are published
Bernama — the national news agency. In practice a Perak closure is carried here and on the radio before it appears on any department's own page — worth checking first thing on a bad morning
Majlis Perbandaran Taiping — the council does not close schools, but it is the body that announces local closures — parks, the Lake Gardens, council events — and posts to Facebook faster than to its website
Which way it is going
Steady — little changed over the last 12 hours, reading 51 now.
The highest reading in the last 24 hours was 56, at 11 Oct, 9:00 pm.
The last 24 hours
Hour
API
Band
12 Oct, 7:00 pm
51
Moderate
12 Oct, 6:00 pm
53
Moderate
12 Oct, 5:00 pm
54
Moderate
12 Oct, 4:00 pm
54
Moderate
12 Oct, 3:00 pm
54
Moderate
12 Oct, 2:00 pm
54
Moderate
Where this reading comes from
The Department of Environment publishes this reading as "Taiping", but the monitor is not in Taiping town. It sits at 4.899°N, 100.679°E — on a school ground off Jalan Kamunting Lama in Taman Kamunting Aman, about 8.7 km north-west of the Lake Gardens, inside the Kamunting side of the MPT area. It is the only official monitor for this district, so it is the right number to watch; it is also measured on the flat land towards Matang rather than in the town under the hills, and a reader deciding whether to keep a child indoors is entitled to know that.
Around the state
Haze arrives across a whole region rather than at one town, so the stations nearby are worth a look — they are often where tomorrow’s reading here is today.
The highest reading in the state right now is Tanjung Malim, at API 62.
Station
API
Band
Tasek Ipoh — 48 km east-south-east, on the north side of Ipoh
52
Moderate
Pegoh Ipoh — 50 km south-east, on the south side of Ipoh
55
Moderate
Seri Manjung — 73 km south, on the coast — the station most exposed to whatever is crossing the Strait
60
Moderate
Tanjung Malim — 156 km south-south-east, at the Selangor border
62
Moderate
Where the fires are
The ASEAN Specialised Meteorological Centre counts fire hotspots from satellite passes across the region each day. These are the counts from the most recent pass:
Region
Hotspots
Sumatra
142
NOAA20 pass, 12 October
A hotspot is a heat signature detected in one satellite pass. The count says how many were seen, not who lit them, not whether any particular fire is what you can smell, and nothing about where the smoke will go next. Cloud cover hides hotspots, so a low count is not proof of a quiet day.
How this number works
The API is the Department of Environment’s own index. It is the highest of seven sub-indices — sulphur dioxide, PM10, PM2.5, ozone over 8 hours and over 1 hour, nitrogen dioxide and carbon monoxide — so it reports whichever pollutant is worst rather than an average of them. For the fine particles that haze is made of, the sub-index is a 24-hour running average, which is why the number moves slowly, and why it can stay high for a while after the smoke visibly thins. It describes health risk, not visibility.
Good to know
The smoke arrives across the Strait, not from the hills
Taiping sits on Peninsular Malaysia's west coast, roughly 250 km across the Strait of Malacca from the peat country of central and southern Sumatra. When the API climbs here it is almost always because smoke has drifted over that water on a south-westerly, not because anything local is burning: on the NOAA-20 pass of 15 September 2026 the ASEAN Specialised Meteorological Centre counted 238 fire hotspots across Sumatra, against a handful in the whole of Malaysia. That is also why the reading can be Unhealthy on a day when the sky above the Bintang range looks ordinary — and why nothing MPT or the district office does locally will bring it down.
During haze the API is driven by fine particles, and the particle sub-index is a 24-hour running average. So the index keeps climbing for hours after the smoke arrives, and stays high for hours after the air has visibly thinned. If the sky looks better than the number, both can be true at once — and if the sky looks worse, the number has not caught up yet.
The 200 rule is not theoretical — it closed 647 schools this month
In the second week of September 2026 the Sarawak State Education Department closed 647 schools for five days after the index there passed 200. That is the same rule, from the same national plan, that applies to Taiping — and the same shape of decision: a reading crossed a line, and then a department decided and announced it. What happens to schools here is announced by the bodies named above, never by this page and never by the index itself.
MetMalaysiathe national weather service — wind, and the rain that actually clears an episode
Air Pollutant Index readings: Department of Environment Malaysia (MyEQMS / APIMS). Fire hotspot counts: ASEAN Specialised Meteorological Centre (ASMC).
12 Oct, 1:00 pm
54
Moderate
12 Oct, 12:00 pm
55
Moderate
12 Oct, 11:00 am
54
Moderate
12 Oct, 10:00 am
55
Moderate
12 Oct, 9:00 am
55
Moderate
12 Oct, 8:00 am
55
Moderate
12 Oct, 7:00 am
54
Moderate
12 Oct, 6:00 am
54
Moderate
12 Oct, 5:00 am
53
Moderate
12 Oct, 4:00 am
54
Moderate
12 Oct, 3:00 am
54
Moderate
12 Oct, 2:00 am
54
Moderate
12 Oct, 1:00 am
54
Moderate
12 Oct, 12:00 am
54
Moderate
11 Oct, 11:00 pm
55
Moderate
11 Oct, 10:00 pm
55
Moderate
11 Oct, 9:00 pm
56
Moderate
11 Oct, 8:00 pm
55
Moderate
the Taiping station, which stands in Kamunting
Open burning is an offence, and it is the one part of this anyone here can act on
Section 29A of the Environmental Quality Act 1974 prohibits open burning on any premises, and the prohibition is enforced by the Department of Environment rather than by the council. It will not move the number much on a day when the smoke came from Sumatra, but a fire on the peat and scrub around Matang or Kamunting is local, close, and worth reporting — to DOE Perak through the department's own channels, or to MPT on 05-808 0777 for anything inside the council area.