Richard's Tech Reviews

Daily PM2.5 data from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Air Monitoring website

New York State provides real-time hourly PM2.5 data in micrograms per cubic metre µg/m³ for twenty-three air quality monitoring stations across the state.

http://www.nyaqinow.net/

Select Reports and then Station Report.

The default settings are ok - Grid and Daily.
DO NOT select Export Excel on this screen.  It will not give you a usable Excel format (it's maybe just producing HTML, I think it's an error unless it's some sort of XML format).

Select the station you want.
Note that not all stations have PM2.5 data. See the bottom of the post for the list of twenty-three PM2.5 stations.

Select the starting day.  Ignore the ending day; no matter what you select it will only give you a day's worth of data.

When you click Generate Report, you will get a screen with a table of hourly measurements, and some options across the top.
In the Export pulldown menu, select CSV, and then click on the blue Export link.

And that's basically it for getting a day's worth of realtime PM2.5 data from a single station.

If you want a one-hour snapshot of PM2.5 across all the stations, instead select Dynamic Tables from the left-hand menu, then select PM2.5, then select Export Text.

Export Text will give you a vertical bar | separated set of values, you should be able to import into a spreadsheet by telling it that a vertical bar is the delimiter rather than a comma.

Incidentally, either of these approaches will enable you to get realtime data from Whiteface Base (the base of Whiteface Mountain, New York), the closest monitoring station to Ottawa.

This is different from the US EPA data for Whiteface Base which is not real-time (the latest approved EPA data from the AirData map are at least two months old).

PM 2.5 Station List

• Albany County HD
• Buffalo
• Buffalo Near Road
• CCNY
• Eisenhower Park
• Fresh Kills West
• IS 143
• IS 52
• IS 74
• Maspeth
• Newburgh
• Pinnacle
• Port Richmond
• PS 274
• PS 314
• Queens College
• Rochester Near Rd
• Rockland County
• Suffolk County
• Tonawanda II
• White Plains
• Utica
• Whiteface Base

US EPA PM2.5 data from the AirData map

This just scratches the surface of the US EPA data offerings.  I was mainly interested in seeing whether there was downloadable realtime data from sensors near Ottawa.  The short answer is there is downloadable data but in an awkward format and delayed by a month or more.

If you want real-time PM2.5 data from New York State, see my blog post Daily PM2.5 data from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Air Monitoring website.

The US EPA has a separate set of mapped sensors from the US AirNow site.

This link will give you a raw map:

https://epa.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=5f239fd3e72f424f98ef3d5def547eb5&extent=-146.2334,13.1913,-46.3896,56.5319

You need to select layers (the stack in the upper right) and then PM2.5 - Active to see the active PM2.5 sensors.  Unlike AirNow, the EPA sensors are USA only.

The closest active PM2.5 sensor I can find to Ottawa is Whiteface Base (Whiteface Mountain, New York), AQS Site ID 36-031-0003.

As you can see, there are links to downloadable data in the popup information box you get when you click on an air sensor icon.

Here's the Whiteface Base daily data download for 2023.  (You can see you could construct this query for any site by just changing the site= at the end.)

https://www3.epa.gov/cgi-bin/broker?_service=data&_program=dataprog.Daily.sas&check=void&polname=PM2.5%20-%20NAAQS/AQI&debug=0&year=2023&site=36-031-0003

The link will give you a CSV file. 
The format is hard to parse, with row-based blocks of data and changing measurement types. Plus which the latest measurement for this site is from April 2023, it's not up-to-date.

Note however you can get real-time PM2.5 data for Whiteface Base by going directly to the New York State air quality data site.

Most of the nearby sites don't have measurements in 2023 at all.

The next closest one I could find with 2023 PM2.5 measurements was Rumford Avenue Parking Lot (RAP) in the very small town of Rumford, Maine, AQS Site ID 23-017-2011.

The daily data download link is

https://www3.epa.gov/cgi-bin/broker?_service=data&_program=dataprog.Daily.sas&check=void&polname=PM2.5%20-%20NAAQS/AQI&debug=0&year=2023&site=23-017-2011

Its daily data only runs to May 2023 though. Still no data for June.

So no luck with finding recent downloadable EPA PM2.5 near Ottawa through their map interface.

Open Data website

The EPA has much richer data than I explored, you could start at

EPA Environmental Dataset Gateway (EDG)

and then search e.g. air quality.

Air Quality Data in Apple Maps and Google Maps

Apple Maps

iOS Apple Maps does show air quality, but not very obviously.

It shows a small box for a single location in the lower right.

Settings -> Maps -> Climate -> Air Quality Index [set to on]

It's so tiny you may not even see it.

iPhone in Canada - July 19, 2021 - Apple Launches Air Quality Info for Weather and Maps in Canada

Even though it says AQI, in Canada it shows AQHI (1 to 10+ scale).

Google Maps

iOS Google Maps has added an air quality layer but for the USA only (using AirNow and PurpleAir). Also a North American wildfires layer.

Click on layers (the stack in the upper right) and select Air Quality or Wildfires.

Screenshots from Victoria, BC on June 10, 2023.

Here's the Air Quality layer, as you can see it shows US locations only.

And here's the Wildfires layer, which does include Canada.

For more information:

• Air quality on Google
• Crisis-related alerts in Google Maps (including wildfires)

Quebec Air Quality and PM2.5 data

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.

https://www.portquebec.ca/en/were-committed/we-take-care-of-our-environment/continuous-air-quality-management

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.

Air Quality as an Apple Watch complication

You can get air quality as an Apple Watch complication, if the location is the right size/shape.

In the Modular Compact face, I put AQI (air quality) as the middle complication.

Above is a simulated display, not a live display.
Note the simulated display shows the US AQI scale.

When you are using the Apple Watch in Canada, it will still say AQI, but it will use the Canadian AQHI scale, which runs from 1 to 10+ and uses different colours.

The Canadian colours are:

• 1 light blue to 3 dark blue = low risk
• 4 yellow to 6 orange = moderate risk
• 7 light red to 10 dark red-brown = high risk
• 10+ brown = very high risk

Please note: AQI values on your Apple Watch or iPhone are Internet-provided values for your entire city, not real-time personal values measured directly at your location.  Your Apple devices don't have built-in PM2.5 sensors.  Your local air quality could be much worse than the city value.  The only way to get your personal value is to get a PM2.5 sensor, they cost about $150.

Unlike AQI, Sound Levels are your local personal value as Apple devices can just use their built-in microphones.

iPhone and Apple Watch Weather app

You can also see the AQI (or in Canada the AQHI) in the iPhone Weather app or the Apple Watch Weather app.  Scroll down in the Watch Weather app and the Air Quality should appear immediately after the temperature data.  The data comes from a company called BreezeoMeter, it doesn't come directly from the Canadian government.

Here's the view in the iPhone Weather app.

Tap on Air Quality to go to a detail screen (you do know you can tap on almost any of the Weather app display boxes e.g precipitation and it will take you to a more detail screen?)

BreezoMeter Data and Watch Update Frequency

The Canadian AQHI data come from BreezeoMeter, not directly from the Government of Canada, and the watch face updating is slow. You may have to tap through on the AQI watch complication to get the latest AQHI in the Apple Watch Weather app.

I frequently see the BreezoMeter AQHI on the Apple Watch and in Apple Weather reporting a level one lower (less risk) than the official Government of Canada level, e.g. the Apple Watch will say 4 when the actual official level is 5.

Government of Canada Weather App

If you want official Canadian government AQHI data, you'll need the Government of Canada weather app WeatherCAN.  I think it is iPhone only, not Apple Watch.

You won't often see the weather condition as simply "Smoke" unless that really predominates over other weather activity.

For an individual city, tap the down caret ⏑ on the main screen.

once you open the additional ▼ menu you will see Air quality with the current AQHI value and colour.

Tap that line or the > next to the AQHI value to see the Forecast Maximums as well as any Special Air Quality Statement that may be in effect.

On the detailed screen you can also click for a web table of the AQHI for the past 24 hours, in the upper right across from Observed Conditions click "Past 24 hours", and for a web table of forecast values for the next 24 hours, in the centre right across from Forecast Maximums, click "Next 24 hours".

If you do get the WeatherCAN app, you can set up custom air quality (AQHI) alerts, although I'm not convinced about how quickly you will get alerted.

Disclaimer

Although I am a Government of Canada employee, I have no involvement with the WeatherCAN app.