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Haze from Indonesian fires closed Malaysian schools while El Niño was still strengthening

Malaysia closed schools in several regions last week because of haze from Indonesian fires, a phys.org roundup of El Niño impacts reports. The WMO says El Niño will keep intensifying until a December peak. Several damage reports also name causes besides the weather cycle.

The Scientist · Science desk

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Photograph accompanying Haze from Indonesian fires closed Malaysian schools while El Niño was still strengthening
Photo: aljazeera.com
Haze closes schools; heat strains Myanmar's grid How the roundup says each place is affected. Numbers would mislead: its figures (fires, flood deaths, sea heat) come from unrelated threads.

Malaysia closed schools over haze from Indonesian fires. Singapore subsidises haze-linked medical care. Haze blanketed Manaus, where public schools shut. Myanmar warned of power outages as a heat wave strains its grid. The Philippines is preparing for possible hydropower declines.

Haze closes schools; heat strains Myanmar's grid
WhoHowKindClaim
MalaysiaClosed schools in several regions last week because of haze from fires in Indonesiadecision6
SingaporeAnnounced subsidies for people seeking medical treatment for haze-linked illnessdecision7
Manaus, Brazilian AmazonHaze from fires blanketed the city; public schools were shut on Fridayexposure9
MyanmarWarned of power outages as an unseasonal heat wave, blamed by authorities on El Niño, strains the gridconstraint10
Philippine governmentPreparing for higher demand and possible hydropower declines due to hotter, drier weatherconstraint19

What happened

  • Singapore announced subsidies for people seeking medical treatment for illness linked to the haze.
  • Malaysia called for a meeting of the regional body ASEAN to discuss the haze, and offered firefighting assistance.
  • In Brazil, haze covered Manaus, the Brazilian Amazon's biggest city, and its public schools closed on Friday.
  • Myanmar told citizens to expect power outages as an unseasonal heat wave, which authorities blamed on El Niño, strained the electricity grid.

Why it matters

  • constraint The 'strongest on record' label depends on the scale. Copernicus cites a sea-surface high of 29.70C and Japan's agency an intensity judgement, and not all forecasters use the same scale.
  • exposure Governments that struggle to absorb the shock are the ones the IMF says it is getting ready to support. Georgieva told AFP she is "very concerned", particularly about food security.
  • decision Philippine energy planners are preparing for possible hydropower declines, and Secretary Sharon Garin put part of the response to the public: "The appeal is for the public to be aware of this so that we can all start having the mindset of energy savings."

Most of these reports name El Niño alongside another cause. In Indonesia, the roundup says, El Niño is associated with strong drought, and forest and plantations in Borneo and South Sumatra have been burning for months [1]. It also relays that experts say years of deforestation and peatland drainage have made the country more vulnerable to fires during dry periods. It does not name them [2]. The fires have sickened tens of thousands of people [21].

The UNDP's Sunday warning lists three inputs. It said the combined impacts of higher borrowing costs, surging energy prices and El Niño created "a perfect storm that could throw tens if not hundreds of millions of people back into poverty" [3]. In southern Madagascar, aid workers told AFP they are already battling a famine, and they expect conditions to worsen as El Niño's full impact on Africa takes hold from this month [4].

The Amazon figures rest on a thin baseline. Amazonas recorded nearly four times more fire hot spots this September than the year before [11], which compares one September with one earlier September. On Wednesday alone, over 749 fires were burning [12].

The cycle also quiets some places. The Atlantic hurricane season has produced one hurricane, exceptionally light because of El Niño, unlike the busy Pacific season [13]. The WMO's own wording is a forecast of risk. In its monthly update the body said: "It is likely to bring above-average temperatures to much of the globe and shift rainfall patterns, increasing the risk of drought and floods in different regions" [14].

We think the closures, subsidies and power warnings are real, documented costs. The roundup presents each as an El Niño impact. The thing it doesn't tell you is the El Niño share of any of them: its numbers box lists 71 deaths in Thailand floods since mid-September [22], with no split.

What to watch

  • The WMO's next monthly update, to see whether the December peak forecast holds.
  • Whether ASEAN members convene on Malaysia's call, and what Indonesia commits to on the fires.
  • Conditions in southern Madagascar as El Niño's full impact on Africa arrives from this month.

Clarity's read

What the record supports and how the coverage leans. The claims behind it follow.

Reality

Evidence58
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Hype gap+15
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  1. [1]

    El Niño is associated with strong drought in Indonesia, where tracts of forest and plantations have been burning in Borneo and the South Sumatra region for months.

    ReportedSupported2 sources— create a free account to open themView cited source
  2. [2]

    Experts, unnamed in the roundup, say years of deforestation and peatland drainage in Indonesia have made it more vulnerable to fires during dry periods.

    ReportedSupported2 sources— create a free account to open themView cited source
  3. [3]

    The UN Development Programme warned Sunday that the combined impacts of higher borrowing costs, surging energy prices and the powerful El Niño created "a perfect storm that could throw tens if not hundreds of millions of people back into poverty."

    ReportedSupported2 sources— create a free account to open themView cited source

Sources

1 independent publisher whose own reporting we read for this story.

  1. phys.org

    1 article · October 13, 2026

    El Niño watch: The impacts around the world this week

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