Use These Apps to Find Out If Your Outdoor Air Quality Index Is Poor.
I am writing this from lovely sunny California – at least I think it is sunny, because the smoke from the apocalypse fires around Silicon Valley swirled around this area for about a week or so. The bizarre moment in this environmental disaster is that sometimes there are days when “oh my god, the sun is red” is balanced by the words, “I think I can still fit into my afternoon walk.”
The easiest way to measure air quality wherever you live is to stick your head outside. If it smells awful, you might want to wear a mask or stay at home. If it smells like joy, you can go on an adventure. But what is not so clear is the fine lines that separate the unpleasant experience from the dangerous. To do this, you need someone else to take more scientific measurements – Air Quality Index:
So how do you find the Air Quality Index for your area (or, in fact, anywhere)? Let’s dig in:
Checking the Internet Air Quality Index
You have many ways to find the Air Quality Index for any given location. Regular weather services such as AccuWeather or Weather.com must have this number for whatever location you want. I’ve always been a fan of EPA’s AirNow site, which also provides air quality index predictions and historical data – I even thought this site, like smoke, was not very pleasing to the eye.
If you want a little more spice, you will need to choose a purple color – in particular, PurpleAir , which gives you a great big map full of points to show how well you can breathe today. You can switch between all kinds of different measurements, including normal temperature as well as different views (normal, satellite, topographic and dark) and average measurements (10 minutes to a week, and also in real time). data).
Checking the Air Quality Index on iOS
It’s simple: open Apple Maps. While you are using iOS 12.2, you will see the Air Quality Index in the lower right corner of the screen. It will update as you move the map to reflect conditions wherever you look.
You can also find the Air Quality Index right in the Weather app:
If you want to achieve great success and get more information on the Index of air quality in the form of an application, you will need to select the forecast air quality AirVisual – average rating of five stars with almost 16 thousand reviews in the App Store as of when we wrote it. The app can send you pollution notifications when the air quality in your particular area deteriorates, or you can just check it yourself. You can quickly add multiple locations to your master summary to see their Air Quality Index measurements at a glance, and by clicking on any of them you get a full three to seven day forecast, hourly and daily history, and some handy little health advice.
Air Quality Index Checker on Android
There isn’t really a “weather app” built into Android by default, and the Google weather widget – actually the “Overview” widget for the Google app – doesn’t give you an Air Quality Index. So, you will have to turn to a third party application if you want to investigate this number.
I highly recommend checking the Android version of the AirVisual Air Quality app I just talked about for iOS. As an added bonus, you can add the Air Quality Index indicator as a widget to your Android device, making it absurdly easy to see your measurements wherever you are. (And yes, you can make the widget smaller; I made it giant just for the screenshot.)
I’m also a fan of the adorable-named BreezoMeter app, although it’s a little more difficult to understand – and it comes with its own measurement, BACQ or BreezoMeter Air Quality Index – that tries to standardize different ways of reporting across countries. air quality measurements. The app also gives you a convenient way to try and track your personal exposure to lousy air based on changing conditions, wherever you are: