The Best Maps to Track Wildfire Smoke
With wildfires driving smoke large distances around the world and limiting visibility in major cities, more people are seeking tools to understand local air quality.
The Manhattan skyline fell under a haze in July because of wildfire smoke that had traveled from the Pacific Northwest.
Photographer: Spencer Platt/Getty Images
As billowing wildfire smoke creates some of the worst-ever air quality in large swaths of North America, concerned residents are getting involved to measure what’s happening in real time.
More individuals, nonprofits and even government agencies are buying their own sensors to track air quality in combination with monitors from the Environmental Protection Agency. Sold by a company called PurpleAir, the number of private devices has roughly doubled since the EPA and the U.S. Forest Service launched Fire and Smoke Map last year. The federal platform combines data from the network of consumer-grade sensors with readings from about 1,000 government air quality monitors.