Air quality update as of 10:55PM on July 18
The air quality on Gabriola Island is returning to acceptable levels.
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Forest fire smoke finally hits Gabriola Island
Our PurpleAir network of realtime air quality monitors is starting to show the first signs of air pollution from the forest fires in the interior of BC. The air quality can change dramatically and quickly as we saw in Kamloops these past two weeks. Keep an eye on our live sensor map by clicking here . There is no provincial air quality monitoring on the island so our citizen science initiative through this non-profit is the place to go for information. We can see the trend line going up rapidly this afternoon around 3PM. These are the current sensor readings for a sister network in Kamloops. Anything over 25 micrograms/cubic meter for a 24 hour averaging period is considered unacceptably high.
PurpleAir sensors provide an accurate and local view of air pollution
Over the past two years the Gabriola Island Clean Air Society has worked with community groups and individuals to setup more than 50 low-cost, realtime air quality monitors in BC. These devices m ade by PurpleAir have created a more nuanced and detailed picture of our air sheds, and also have provided much needed empirical evidence to support the claim that wood burning from a variety of sources creates local pollution hot spots that are not being detected by provincial air quality monitoring. The accuracy of these instruments has been questioned by some, in part, because people are often uncomfortable with the results. Residential wood burning including the use of fireplaces, wood stoves, bon fires, and yard clearing exposes people who live nearby to air pollution risks that are hyper local, and as high (but on an ongoing albeit episodic basis) as forest fire smoke. The forest fires unfolding in the interior of British Columbia this past week provide some importa...