How to Be Grateful for Free Oxygen: A Haze Guide for Singaporeans

Steps 1 and 2: know your privileges, and do not be a freeloader

Step 1. Know your privileges. Apparently free oxygen is a luxury we take for granted. You wake up, you breathe, nobody sends you an invoice. For years. Not once did you say thank you.

Step 2. Do not be a freeloader. Breathing for free and still got complaints? The air was delivered to your window at no charge and you are on Telegram saying the West smells like a barbecue. Some people in this country will never be satisfied. If you want to know what the sky actually looked like this week instead of what we think of your attitude, our haze and PSI tracker has NEA's readings, the free N95 mask scheme and the haze shelters.

Steps 3 and 4: leave a five-star review, and remember who sent it

Step 3. Leave a five-star review. Great atmosphere. Literally too much atmosphere. Marina Bay looked like a screensaver that had not loaded. Five stars, would inhale again, but maybe ask the manager to turn it down.

Step 4. Remember who sent it. In the words of nobody official, ever: we do not just send haze, we send oxygen too. Gratitude goes both ways, you see. You take the clear days, you take the grey days, you do not get to pick. That is what a free subscription looks like.

Step 5: be extra grateful, and stop giving them ideas

Step 5. Be extra grateful. Every time someone posts "we should get compensated for this", somewhere a spreadsheet opens. Stop giving them ideas. Later kena charged for breathing, per litre, with GST, and you will look back at October 2026 as the good old days when the air was free and only slightly crunchy.

End of guide. Follow us for more haze updates, and we mean that part.

Jokes aside: what the haze actually looked like this week

These are NEA's own readings for 2pm on Tuesday 20 October 2026, from the live feed behind haze.gov.sg. 24-hour PSI: North 89 (Moderate), South 103, East 104, Central 122 and West 136, the last four in the Unhealthy band. 1-hour PM2.5 was 39 in the North and 111 in the West. NEA's outlook that morning said the hotspot and haze situation was likely to stay raised over the next few days, with a "continued risk of severe transboundary haze occurrence".

NEA's mask line is plain: when the 1-hour PM2.5 is in the High band, vulnerable people should avoid outdoor activities and "may wear a mask to reduce exposure", and in the Very High band that applies to everyone. Use the 1-hour PM2.5 for what to do right now and the 24-hour PSI to plan tomorrow. The haze was also bad enough to move a real event: the Singapore Dog Festival postponed its 16 to 18 October opening weekend and, per its own site, now expects to start on 23 October 2026, subject to air quality. Check the readings before you make outdoor plans. We will keep the tracker updated.