Air quality and the fires in Canada

[InBetweenDays]

Jun 7, 2023 12:06:58 GMT -5 msmerymac said:

So this is an @@@ thread now?

Apologies, I wasn't thinking about the reference in my post. Thanks to whomever added the @@.

[somersault72]

I heard on the radio this morning it was going to be hazy here in southern Ohio due to the fires in Canada. I guess we have not had rain here in quite awhile which makes it worse. I just got back into town last night.

[kath16]

that purpleair map has readings from 250-341 in my area, so... we are inside with the windows shut except for walking the dog.

we do have the air running every once in a while, but i wasn't sure if that was good or bad for indoor air quality.

[pixy0stix]

Jun 7, 2023 12:17:24 GMT -5 kath16 said:

that purpleair map has readings from 250-341 in my area, so... we are inside with the windows shut except for walking the dog.

we do have the air running every once in a while, but i wasn't sure if that was good or bad for indoor air quality.

It's good! Your system has a filter on it, and running it will clear the whole house in a couple of minutes. It probably wouldn't hurt to change/upgrade the filter now.

For reference, I have several stand alone air purifiers that were struggling the week the smoke landed on us. Our big one was hovering at 80% air quality (usually at 100%). The air conditioner kicked on and within a couple of minutes all the purifiers in the house calmed down and showed clear air.

ETA: Air purifier online communities (it's a thing and really niche, lol!) actually say to upgrade your furnace filters before purchasing air purifiers for wildfire smoke.

[Jalapeñomel]

Air quality is 150+ here

Scratch that, 400 in NYC according to PurpleMap

[jinkies]

I am also confused by the AQI-- it doesn't seem to be a standard number, since Accuweather is saying it's currently 90, Weather.com is saying 170, and the purple map is saying 233.

I guess it doesn't really matter in the end-- the air is very bad, and we are staying inside.

[Velar Fricative]

Jun 7, 2023 12:26:20 GMT -5 Jalapeñomel said:

Air quality is 150+ here

Scratch that, 400 in NYC according to PurpleMap

Yes and it looks like what I imagine Mars to look like in person right now. 

[InBetweenDays]

Jun 7, 2023 12:39:00 GMT -5 jinkies said:

I am also confused by the AQI-- it doesn't seem to be a standard number, since Accuweather is saying it's currently 90, Weather.com is saying 170, and the purple map is saying 233.

I guess it doesn't really matter in the end-- the air is very bad, and we are staying inside.

Did you add the conversion factor to the PurpleAir map? Be sure to add the EPA or LRAPA conversion otherwise it isn't as accurate for wildfire smoke. I tend to use both AirNow and PurpleAir.

[pixy0stix]

Jun 7, 2023 12:39:00 GMT -5 jinkies said:

I am also confused by the AQI-- it doesn't seem to be a standard number, since Accuweather is saying it's currently 90, Weather.com is saying 170, and the purple map is saying 233.

I guess it doesn't really matter in the end-- the air is very bad, and we are staying inside.

Accuweather is pulling a generic number from your area.

Weather.com is probably pulling from a few stations and aggregating the number.

PurpleAir pulls from privately owned stations that people have set up, so it gives a hyper local reading for that station. Make sure you zoom out and look at a few from that area, because sometimes there's a pollutant that's only effecting that one station you're looking at.  Plus, as someone said upthread, make sure the readings are the epa readings (I think might be the default).

[jinkies]

Thanks InBetweenDays and pixy0stix. It looks like accuweather is the outlier-- with the conversion everything in the area is in the 180-200 range, which is pretty close to the weather.com number.

I agree with the comment about it looking like Mars outside.

[goldengirlz]

Those air quality numbers. 😞 This Californian feels for you.

[wildrice]

Jun 7, 2023 9:29:12 GMT -5 mala said:

Jun 7, 2023 8:42:17 GMT -5 wildrice said:

The weather has been mild here in the Baltimore/DC area and I haven't smelled smoke, but based on what others are saying I just shut our windows. The sky does look both overcast and sunny at the same time, so I guess maybe it's not actually overcast?

Not overcast, smoke & haze.


Predictions have it getting worse in MD over the next few days, at least according to the map I'm looking at.

EDIT to add the link I've been watching: firesmoke.ca/forecasts/current/

I just drove into Baltimore and it definitely looked hazy over the buildings as the city came into view! I can't imagine how much worse it must be further north   

[litebright]

I'm in the DC metro exurbs and there is a thick haze in the sky. Has been for several days. WaPo said today that they're expecting even more smoke to come in tomorrow and the air quality to get even worse.

[msmerymac]

Jun 7, 2023 12:09:35 GMT -5 kath16 said:

Jun 7, 2023 8:47:56 GMT -5 msmerymac said:

There's a phenomenon, at least down near me, where they expect we could have "dry thunderstorms" with pinpoint lightening strikes with no actual rainfall, which is obviously a perfect situation for fires, in addition to the wind and stuff. The National Weather Service says this is a first for this area. No record of it happening before. 

I feel like I'm still in California with these "fire weather" warnings!

are you in MontCo? bc i am too and havent heard this yet so... cool cool cool cool cool cool cool... 

Yes, although I think specifically it was out of NJ/Mount Holly. 

[heliocentric]

Purple Air shows my town is over 400 (even with the EPA conversion turned on).

Does anyone know if running our mini splits will help?

[msmerymac]

Jun 7, 2023 15:25:52 GMT -5 heliocentric said:

Purple Air shows my town is over 400 (even with the EPA conversion turned on).

Does anyone know if running our mini splits will help?

Anecdotally, I haven’t smelled smoke in my house with the mini splits running. But it’s new and I assume the filter was pretty clean before this.

[Jalapeñomel]

Anyone know when it’s supposed to get better? I know it’s somewhat unpredictable, but they originally said today and now it’s Friday.

[pixy0stix]

Jun 7, 2023 15:25:52 GMT -5 heliocentric said:

Purple Air shows my town is over 400 (even with the EPA conversion turned on).

Does anyone know if running our mini splits will help?

I think so? They have filters, right? Anything that is circulating and filtering the air will help.

[msmerymac]

Both the White Sox at Yankees and Tigers at Phillies games have been postponed today, but are supposed to be made up in doubleheaders tomorrow...

[InBetweenDays]

Jun 7, 2023 15:30:53 GMT -5 Jalapeñomel said:

Anyone know when it’s supposed to get better? I know it’s somewhat unpredictable, but they originally said today and now it’s Friday.

AirNow has a forecast tool, but I don't know how accurate it is.

www.airnow.gov/

[spindle92]

Jun 7, 2023 15:45:30 GMT -5 msmerymac said:

Both the White Sox at Yankees and Tigers at Phillies games have been postponed today, but are supposed to be made up in doubleheaders tomorrow...

They just postponed the WNBA game in New York tonight so fans don't go out in this stuff.

[Gato]

I see that Princeton’s AQI is currently 387. 😱 The poor deer and other wildlife.

Weirdly, the smoke clouds swirl all around but completely avoid Maine.

[wanderingback]

Jun 7, 2023 7:46:28 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

I'm struggling with how the news and social media suddenly seem to care. Y'all, how do you think people in the west feel 6 months out of the year? Can we now give a shit and stop our climate killing ways? (All this is general and not meant specifically for anyone here.)

So true.
I’ll admit my naivety. I didn’t realize in the west it was like this 6 months out of the year. I knew it happened, but didn’t know it was such a long period regularly Not being able to safely go outside for long periods of time, ugh. Thanks for the education.

[sakoro]

Jun 7, 2023 8:32:16 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

Jun 7, 2023 8:16:15 GMT -5 noodleoo said:

Can someone explain what AQI means? I'm in Boston and it looks much better today (they said on the news the smoke is moving west of us). But the AQI in my weather app is around 80 and says it is worse than yesterday. I didn't check the number yesterday but we had orange skies/sun and it looks much better today. I'm so confused! Is in the 80s bad like we shouldn't be going outside? I turned on our AC to circulate and filter the air and all our windows are closed already since its been cool again.

Velar Fricative , agreed. I never remember thinking about this in NE before the past few years.

What do you need explained beyond what you can find in a google search? In general, that'll give you general guidelines on what is ok and isn't at various points.

I’ll just note that during the terrible air quality/ orange sky in San Francisco week in fall 2020, the AQI readings were pretty far apart depending on which app or website you’re using. I would check several sites and match against your actual breathing experience. Sorry to everyone who has to experience this on the East Coast and Canada— it really messes with your head when you can’t get away from the smoke smell.

[heygrey]

Jun 7, 2023 15:30:53 GMT -5 Jalapeñomel said:

Anyone know when it’s supposed to get better? I know it’s somewhat unpredictable, but they originally said today and now it’s Friday.

You need to look at the weather radar and see when a low pressure system with rain is moving in. You need the pressure and air cleanse. Skip the speculation. You're not in a valley that locks in an air mass so it should move sooner than later.  But also, if the fires persist, that could be a 30 minute reprieve and then the smoke filters back in. 

[minzy]

It’s icky again today in MD heading into DC. Visibility is shit and the sun’s eerie orange color is unsettling. I’m on the train and have my KN95 on for two reasons. I hope this is a wake up call for a lot of east coasters.

[wanderingback]

My clinic is closed today and we’re doing televisits only.

[wawa]

So like....west coast/mountain region folks who deal with this on the regular....how much reaction is an overreaction? Hold our little east coast hands?

@@@
We're supposed to go camping with an organized group that includes kids this weekend. Emails flying among the leadership (which includes my H) right now deciding what to do.
We'd be spending a good chunk of the weekend sititng aorund a campfire anyway, but like....taking shorties hiking in this, sleeping in this...is...not good? right?? we cancel? there's no rescheduling so it's just not happening if it doesn't happen this weekend, and it's kind of a big "end of year" event, so some folks are really reluctant to cancel, but others think we kinda have to. I keep looking outside at the apocalypse movie filter that's been laid over DC and don't see how we tell people we're spending the weekend outside. But it might rain friday night?

[pixy0stix]

Jun 8, 2023 8:43:20 GMT -5 wawa said:

So like....west coast/mountain region folks who deal with this on the regular....how much reaction is an overreaction? Hold our little east coast hands?

@@@
We're supposed to go camping with an organized group that includes kids this weekend. Emails flying among the leadership (which includes my H) right now deciding what to do.
We'd be spending a good chunk of the weekend sititng aorund a campfire anyway, but like....taking shorties hiking in this, sleeping in this...is...not good? right?? we cancel? there's no rescheduling so it's just not happening if it doesn't happen this weekend, and it's kind of a big "end of year" event, so some folks are really reluctant to cancel, but others think we kinda have to. I keep looking outside at the apocalypse movie filter that's been laid over DC and don't see how we tell people we're spending the weekend outside. But it might rain friday night?

I don't camp, so there's that. However, anything over 150 AQI if I'm outside for longer than an hour my eyes start to burn and my throat itches. So I personally would not go. In 2020 when CO was on fire I spent a good chunk of time outside for work when the AQI was ~200s, and I was miserable even with a mask.

[InBetweenDays]

wawa when do you have to make a call? AirNow forecasts it to drop under 150 tomorrow and Saturday in DC. If that were the case I'd probably feel ok going. But if it's still up where it is now i would definitely not go.

But can you have a campfire? Usually here when the smoke is bad we have a burn ban.