EPA and Forest Service Release New AirNow Fire and Smoke Map

On Sept. 5, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service announced the release of an updated version of the popular AirNow Fire and Smoke Map to provide millions of people in the U.S. with more information they can use to protect themselves from wildfire smoke.

EPA and the Forest Service developed the Fire and Smoke Map to provide the public information on fire locations, smoke plumes, near real-time air quality, Smoke Outlooks for large U.S. wildfires, and protective actions to take — all in one place.

To give users the most localized air quality information possible, the map pulls data from monitors that regularly report to AirNow, temporary monitors such as those the Forest Service and air agencies have deployed near fires, and crowd-sourced data from nearly 15,000 low-cost sensors that measure fine particle pollution, the major harmful pollutant in smoke. The map shows this data in the familiar color-coding of the U.S. Air Quality Index.

The updated Fire and Smoke Map has a new look and feel, is designed to load more quickly, and includes information not available in the previous versions, such as:

• Air quality monitoring information on coarse particle pollution and ozone, both of which can increase because of wildfire smoke.
• More information on individual wildland fires, including the type of fire and level of fire activity, when available.
• Information from low-cost fine particle sensors in Canada, in cooperation with Environment and Climate Change Canada.

You can view the Fire and Smoke Map on the AirNow website or select the smoke icon on the bottom right of the AirNow smartphone app. The AirNow app can be downloaded in the Apple App Store or on Google Play.

Learn more about the updates to the Fire and Smoke Map in the EPA’s Sept. 5 news release.