More and more people are concerned about the Air Quality Index scores of locations, whether it be their own city or a destination they want to travel to. Given that poor AQI scores can have a direct negative impact on life and quality of life, it is reasonable to want to see what the AQI is for different locations, and go even further, to even map-level air quality. to be seen, superimposed on a location or entirely. region.
Let’s see how you can view the air quality index and an AQI map directly on your iPhone, iPad or Mac.
You may already know that AQI shows up in Weather for locations these days, but you can go even further and see a full Air Quality Index map too.
How to View Air Quality Maps on iPhone, iPad, Mac
This works the same way to find the AQI chart in the Weather app for any Apple device, be it an iPhone, iPad or Mac:
- Open the Weather app
- Choose the location you want to see the AQI for, or use the search function to find a new destination
- Tap the precipitation map to enlarge it
- Tap the Layers button. It looks like three squares are stacked on top of each other
- Choose “Air Quality” from the list
- You will see the AQI map for that area and you can navigate the air quality map to see AQI numbers for other areas as well by panning around or zooming in and out
Here’s what this AQI chart looks like on iPhone from the Weather app. Again, it’s the same whether you’re using Weather on iPhone, iPad, or Mac, the only difference being that the size of the AQI map is bigger on iPad and Mac because their screens are larger:
As you can see in this sample screen, most of California is in the green level with “good” AQI, and there are yellow spots, but once you get north of Redding in Northern California and Oregon, the AQI is absolutely terrible. Dangerous AQI is common in the Pacific Northwest and forested western states due to significant fire activity, reckless people setting fires, and poor forestry practices. Unless you like breathing in thick smoke and PM2.5 particles, those areas with hazardous AQI should too. be avoided. Having recently visited a region with an AQI score of 250+, I would not recommend it to anyone.
AirNow.gov provides the following chart to educate you on what unhealthy AQI levels are, which can also be a helpful resource to refer to:
Thanks to the Weather app, you can now make better decisions about quality of life measures such as air quality, whether they are relevant to your travels, destinations, living, moving or whatever. Be where the sky is clear!