Every morning, the team over at the Soberanes Fire puts out
an Air Quality forecast for the day. We also forecast when the best time of day
will be. We do this to help you prepare for and plan your day around potential
smoke impacts, especially for people who are more likely to feel the effects of
smoke exposure. You can find these forecasts at the CA Smoke Blog, which you
can follow on twitter. We also post these on fire information boards throughout
the area. We issue forecasts in Spanish as well. Help us get the word out and
share these forecasts with your friends, family, and community.
Thanks to the Monterey Bay Air Resources District, we’ve got
19 monitoring stations placed in communities in the area. If you have internet
access, here’s how you can check what the air quality is in your community, anytime
day or night.
Step 1.
Go to the AirNow website for Current Fire
Conditions. A map like the one below will open up.
Step 2.
Click on the grey bar on the right-hand side of the screen
Step 3.
Turn on all the layers. Click the bar again to return to the full map.
The colored circles or triangles are the air quality monitors, the grey blobs
represent models of where the smoke is going. The flames show where fires are.
Step 4.
Find the monitor (the colored triangle or circle) closest to
you and refer to the Air Quality Index chart below to determine what your air
quality is currently like by matching the color of the monitor to the Air
Quality Index (“AQI”). The Air Quality Index is designed to be applied to conditions
averaged over an entire day. That’s why you might see a couple spikes of high
air pollution levels on the monitor when you check but a lower level reflected
in the air quality forecast.
Step 5.
If air quality is bothering you, check out
ways to reduce your exposure.
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