Real-Time Air Quality Index Visual Map | Hacker News Reader

Real-Time Air Quality Index Visual Map

aqicn.org

If you're in the US, you can also just turn on the AQI layer in Google Maps. It uses data from Airnow and PurpleAir.

Out west, fireworks started a few wildfires and the air is bad again :( Peak Murica, let's shoot some explosives at nothing and see what burns lol

Edit: Wait, my bad, there isn't an identified link between these specific wildfires and yesterday's fireworks. That was just my own (biased) assumption.

It is pretty easy to determine a link. https://katu.com/news/local/fireworks-blamed-for-six-wildfir...

We legally light stuff on fire and launch it in the air, that will absolutely result in additional fires.

These fires were contained, so the bigger wildfires are just continuing to do their thing. These probably distract from larger firefighting efforts, though.

It’s not really accurate to say we “light stuff on fire” considering how fireworks function.

Not much in a firework is actually all that hot post explosion, for example.

Can you explain? Are you saying something about the chemistry or mechanics of fireworks makes them unable or unlikely to start wildfires, vs say a smoldering campfire or lightning or whatever?

Yeah, basically. Their main goal is to emit their energy via light, not heat, and while if you fire one right into a dense, dry forest it won’t go well, their standard use has their explosion occur in the open air, after which the remains are generally pretty cool.

Don't the "embers" (if that's even the right word/phenomenon) remain fiery though? The last show I went to, about half the explosions started small ground fires that staff had to manually put out every few minutes.

They stay hot, but not so much fiery generally. You're talking about a professional fireworks show as well, which are going to be bigger and presumably hotter. Lighting off artillery shells last night, by the time the debris fluttered down, it was cool to the touch. The tubes on the ground are a different story though. Shoot, the debris from the one the neighbors so kindly dropped in the tube upside down when I was 30 feet away didn't burn me. Wasn't happy about it, but wasn't even singed.

Were they lighting the fireworks directly on a dry field? How far from the tubes were these fires starting?

I'm not sure whether it's the embers or tubes causing the fires. But here's a story about them... happens every year: https://ktvz.com/news/fire/2023/07/04/bends-bigger-pilot-but...

Edit: video said it was the falling fireworks that started the fires. It took two months of planning, several hundred feet of hoses, and a few engines and many firefighters pre parked there to contain it

I'd be for a national fireworks ban, personally, especially during the summer wildfire seasons.

But it wouldn't be fair to attribute the poor air quality today specifically to fireworks unless evidence links them.

The last 4th of July show I watched had designated people on the ground stamping out fires as they started. It seemed ridiculous to me for the city to still do them in such a dry area, but at least each little fire was put out within seconds. It was wild seeing the explosions happen, then tiny people running around and putting them out, occasionally with the help of a firetruck. In the end it worked out pretty well and none of the fires spread or lasted past the fireworks show. But still kinda unreal to witness...

A lot of it too is the fireworks themselves. Turns out having millions of people lighting them almost constantly for several hours in an area that had little wind all night and is surrounded by mountains affects the air quality.

Rancho Cucamonga is over 300 AQI (hazardous) this morning.

https://www.ocregister.com/2023/07/04/officials-warn-of-poor...

> Edit: Wait, my bad, there isn't an identified link between these specific wildfires and yesterday's fireworks. That was just my own (biased) assumption.

They certainly did start the 2017 fire in the Columbia River Gorge though:

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/05/22/613374984...

Fireworks are now banned in Portland after an apartment building burned down due to a dumpster fire started by fireworks, which killed two people in 2021:

https://www.opb.org/article/2021/07/08/northeast-portland-ap...

Personal fireworks are idiotic and people who light then off should be ashamed of themselves, it is like driving drunk, they all think they're safe and they can handle it.

> killed two people in 2021

A third died in the burn center 102 days after the fire.[0]

I have multiple friends who lived in the Heidi Manor Apartments over the years. I saw the fire from 15 ft away standing on the sidewalk across the street from the building, it was horrifying. That building was a tinderbox and those walkways didn't have nearly enough staircases to be safe, it was a disaster waiting to happen.

I absolutely agree that personal fireworks are insane and should be outlawed entirely.

[0] https://www.oregonlive.com/crime/2023/04/deadly-portland-apa...

Any disaster like that is likely to be caused by fireworks finding the worst structure to burn down. Stochastic, destructive testing of building fire codes.

I've found that Google's reporting severely under reports air quality (making it look better than it is). The purple air map itself seems much more reliable for tracking actual local air quality.

I use purple air zoomed out combined with windy.com to generate my own smoke predictions, it's worked pretty well for me.

I nearly positive google maps isn't including ozone

What's ozone for?

All these third-parties are just using limited APIs from other networks and sometimes only one source like the US government network which has very few sensors very far away from most people.

Other network maps:

https://google.com/maps/@/data=!5m1!1e9

https://gispub.epa.gov/airnow/

https://map.purpleair.com/

https://map.airgradient.com/

https://www.iqair.com/air-quality-map

https://data.usatoday.com/fires/

https://www.airnow.gov is a fairly good equivalent for the US. Includes a heat map, which is a bit easier to parse as well.

OP linked to Europe for some reason, but this site does have the whole world: https://aqicn.org/map/world/

Then across the top are links for various countries but you can also just zoom in wherever.

Googlers: why isn't this in Android's weather app yet?

You'll give me warnings, your data source gives AQI (with details! PM2.5, CO, NO2, O3, PM10, SO2), but you think people are more about dew point, pressure, and humidity? I mean do most people understand these numbers? What percentage actually understand humidity?

But seriously, give me the AQI. The official app has 5+M downloads and all the weather apps have it. Even Apple has it! (actually their weather app is great. Take note). Seriously, why is this not here? You would think it would be a common feature given all the fires California has and the increasing number country wide the last few years. Low hanging fruit here...

It's in Google Maps instead, as a layer.

And on my Pixel, it's available in the "At a glance" feature on the home screen.

Probably not the most intuitive places to put it though. I never even realized Android has a weather app...

> Google Maps

This is relatively new (<1yr?) and reasonable for someone to not assume it to be here.

> "At a glance"

Not true. There is only AQI alerts. At least on my Pixel.

> I never even realized Android has a weather app...

I'm a bit surprised due to 1) this being in the at a glance, with default on, and 2) temperature being shown in nearly every advertised display of the pixel phone. Just click on the temperature and you open the app. There's also a larger widget if you want to see multiple hours forecast.

Yes, it's totally reasonable. I agree it should be more easily accessible.

I think I clicked on the Android weather app from the widget by accident once, but it was so bad/barebones I never used it again.

https://grafana.adam.gs/dashboard/snapshot/HYW4MBLhhhKDJjRMH...

Fireworks near me, last night!

And here's a smoke prediction tracker for north america https://firesmoke.ca

Is there any api where I can contribute my pm 2.5 data ? All of these sites have r/o apis. Even if the data is not 100% accurate and calibrated they could still crowdsource it like they do for temp and humidity.

Check out this: https://openaq.org/ Found via this: https://www.airgradient.com/blog/hidden-costs-of-air-quality...

I mentioned it on another related thread but the strange thing is the more measurements you have the less quality the air seems to be.

It's a really tricky measurement to both grade and analyse because the more dense the city, the more measurements will be taken but also the more pollution will naturally occur.

it's just something to consider when reading this kind of data.

The air quality in several cities in the US dropped noticeably after the fireworks. Similar to the air quality after the wildfires.

Today is usually the worst day of the year for air quality in Los Angeles (where I am).

AQ of 200 this morning in the IE. Fontana pumped explosives into the air for 4-5 hours last night. Spectacle to watch, but this morning, combined with just normal atmospheric conditions, it was about 1/2 mile visibility all over the valley this morning. Orange sunrise to be sure.

Presuming the stats are correct, it's interesting how localised this can be - unhealthy levels very close to healthly levels. I read a pollution report on my city recently where they talked about pollution "canyons", busy roads surrounded on both sides by tall buildings, which kept the pollution focused on that road.

There's a spot in Chicago that this map currently says is "49 - Good" (within the 0 - 50 range), but is colored yellow for Moderate. Some sort of minor bug I assume, but it means the broad view of mostly looking at the dot colors might not be correct.

wtf happened in serbia?

https://aqicn.org/station/serbia/zajecar/%D0%BA%D1%80%D1%83%...

I'd guess it's a badly situated or configured sensor.

I have seen similar numbers from multiple sensors across our city during the fireworks at New Years eve.

I have grown to like windy.com, just turn on the air quality layer PM2.5

All this data out there and Apple still don’t have good AQI coverage.

Why is air quality generally worse further inland?

Most of the air pollutants are generated inland, and most of the poor quality air remains somewhat local (or within a couple hundred miles) from the source. Oceans provide a lot of space for the particles to diffuse and eventually get captured.

How does this differ from waqi.info ?

wow Japan and Taiwan have pretty good air quality.

I wonder if time of day makes a difference.

Please correct the title to reflect that this is for Europe only.

I see data for other continents too

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