Port of Quebec
The closest to PM2.5 realtime data I could easily find to view on the web is a daily average from the Port of Quebec.
The Port of Quebec is showing PM2.5 values in micrograms per cubic metre µg/m³ (the usual measurement scale). I don't see any way to download, I think you'd have to scrape values from the "Detailed Data History" chart they provide.
Please make sure that you check the date on the data however. It looks like it lags by two days in the morning, and by one day in the afternoon; it doesn't appear to ever show the real-time data.
Montreal
Montreal does have full real-time data a few layers down.
But they're using a scale called IQA (Indice de la qualité de l'air), it goes:
- Bon : De 1 à 25
- Acceptable : De 26 à 50
- Mauvais : 51 ou plus
(This is, of course, a different scale from the Canadian AQHI scale.)
For Montreal you can only get readings on the IQA scale, not the underlying measurements.
You can get an overall map
vuesurlesdonnees montreal ca - Indice de la qualité de l'air
If you drill down to a single station it will show PM2.5 in the chart but only as an IQA value, not the underlying value.
To actually access the Montreal real-time data you need to go to the open data site, but you will still only get IQA values for PM2.5, not the actual underlying PM2.5 real measurement.
https://donnees.montreal.ca/dataset/rsqa-indice-qualite-air
Specifically
IQA détaillé par station en temps réel (Quotidien) - CSV
Please don't mistake these PM2.5 values for micrograms per cubic metre µg/m³
In the CSV are PM2.5 values converted to the IQA 1-50+ scale, not the underlying PM2.5 measurement.
Province of Quebec
The Province of Quebec does not appear to offer realtime PM2.5 data.
They have PM2.5 charts, but they are back-looking yearly averages, e.g. Auclair.
https://www.environnement.gouv.qc.ca/air/reseau-surveillance/graphiques.asp
Quebec has hourly measurements but retrospective only.
You can search the open data site for Réseau de surveillance de la qualité de l’air du Québec (RSQAQ)
https://www.donneesquebec.ca/recherche/dataset?organization=&q=rsqaq
The main dataset is
RSQAQ - Données horaires continues
but the latest data at the time of this writing is from 2022; there is no real time data for the current year.
Here are the details for their PM2.5 measurements:
- PM2.5-TEOM : concentration de particules fines mesurées par un appareil TEOM-SES exprimée en µg/m³. Cet appareil de première génération sous-estime les concentrations par temps froid. L'utilisation de ces données doit tenir compte de ce biais. Elles ne sont pas comparables à celles des autres appareils (BAM et T640).
- PM2.5-BAM : concentration de particules fines mesurées par un appareil Met-One BAM 1020 exprimée en µg/m³
- PM2.5-T640 : concentration de particules fines mesurées par un appareil API T-640 exprimée en µg/m³
See also:
For Canadian AQHI and PM2.5 air quality data, please see blog post Parsing Canadian Air Quality Health Index Data.
Comments