Walked my dog this morning and the sky had that flat brown haze again, so I stood there comparing three different air quality apps and they all gave me a different number. One said fine, one said sensitive groups, one said just stay in!!
Do you actually check the AQI before you make plans now, or am I the only one who has gotten weird about it? And if you do check, which app do you trust, and where do you go instead when the hike is out?
PurpleAir map. The sensors are right on people's houses so it tells you what your block is doing, not the basin.
If it is over 150 I skip Los Liones and hit the gym. Not worth it for one hike.
Great news, I already do not go outside.
It doesn't look too bad with the rain right now.
I honestly barely check the AQI, since it doesn't really affect my daily plans. I mean, what can I do? I have to go to work. I have to get out on the weekends.
IQAir app. Over 150 I skip the beach and go to Target.
I check it, but I’ve gotten less neurotic about it. I agree, PurpleAir is great. It’s is only one that matches what I can actually see.
.. but as I said, I am less crazy about it these days.
I used to be the “it’s probably fine” person. Then I started tracking how I felt the next day and the correlation was embarrassing. Now I glance at IQAir before I even put shoes on.
If it’s bad we do errands we were putting off, or I finally clean the garage. The hike can wait. Better a boring Saturday than that tight-chest Sunday.
I keep both AirNow and PurpleAir open, because the official monitors sit miles apart and PurpleAir fills in the gaps between them. AirNow for the number I trust, PurpleAir for my actual street.
On smoke days I stop pretending I am going to Runyon and just make it an indoor day. The Broad, or a long lunch in Koreatown, and the air purifier runs at home until it clears.
Nope. Life’s too short. I grew up in a city that was way worse than this and we still played outside every day. I’ll check the weather for rain, that’s it. If someone in the group has asthma or a little kid I’ll be more careful, but for me personally I’m not rearranging the whole day over AQI.
The part nobody mentions is that the number you see is usually an hourly average, so during a fire it lags behind what you are actually breathing. Watch the trend, not the single reading.
Bad days I skip the Bluff Creek walk and lift indoors instead. One boring afternoon beats a week of that cough.
I agree. Life is too short and we can’t really escape anyways. Not gonna adjust my plans because of it.
I used to check it for like two weeks after that one bad fire year and then I stopped. Felt like I was giving myself anxiety over a number that changes every 20 minutes. If the dog wants to walk, we walk.