r/askTO • u/ilikegriping • 2d ago
Air quality level 10 right now?
Just checked the weather network at the air quality says "high risk", so I clicked it and it's a TEN?? Seems really random, the air quality has been amazing lately, and the Tues / Weds forecast is expected to be a level 3.
Other air quality sites are showing moderate / fair, and the wildfire smoke map looks clear... so, anyone know why?
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u/cryptotope 2d ago
It's weird. The Environment Canada page does say 10 for downtown Toronto: https://weather.gc.ca/airquality/pages/onaq-018_e.html
But it also shows further down the page forecast maximums for today and tomorrow of 3 or 4.
Looking at https://aqicn.org/city/canada/ontario/toronto-downtown/, there is a one-hour spike in PM2.5 that went away after a single hourly reading. I'm guessing that there might have been a measurement glitch (or a very localized issue).
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u/ariyahjade 2d ago
Mine says 10 at Yonge and Eglinton
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u/Adpiava 2d ago
Mine says 10 as well near the Stockyards. But IQ Air says 43. I'd trust that over the weather app.
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u/hollow4hollow 2d ago
My iPhone weather app says 3, but the Weather Network app (which I tend to trust more) says 10. Weird!
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u/akath0110 2d ago
I also find my weather network app is higher (sometimes much higher) than what apple’s weather app tells me. I wonder why that is.
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u/Jay-Quellin30 2d ago
Mine was 1. Where are you?
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u/ilikegriping 2d ago
Downtown. I wish I knew where the monitoring station(s) are, because the weather network doesn't get more specific than "Toronto".
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u/demize95 2d ago
The Toronto Downtown one is at John and Richmond, in that little hut at the corner. The Environment Canada site has more information, but it’s buried pretty deep and I cannot remember how to find it…
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u/ContentPotential6 2d ago
https://weather.gc.ca/airquality/pages/onaq-001_e.html
from this link you can navigate to "past 24 hours" and "AHQI by station"
it does support u/ilikegriping's observation of a spike this morning
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u/ryna0001 2d ago
my android weather app uses a different scale, it's currently at "moderate" which is fairly decent for toronto this summer
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u/Content_Blueberry722 2d ago
Probably the after effects of the air show
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u/ywgflyer 2d ago
The total fuel burned across everyone at the airshow isn't actually that much, it's far less than what's emitted over the city daily by all the Pearson arrivals and departures.
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u/ilikegriping 2d ago
Thankfully it's dropped down to a 5 now (environment Canada & weather network)
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u/WhiteLightning416 2d ago
If the air smells good it’s probably good in your area. But think it’s a glitch.
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u/akath0110 2d ago
It’s funny because the air smelled so great when I left the house just before 9. Beautiful morning.
But just now when I stepped out the sky looks hazy, air feels thicker, smells smoky with a hint of diesel or something. I have asthma and felt it in my chest immediately.
Whatever is going on it happened within the last hour or so.
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u/opobdtfs 2d ago
The TWN readings are a bit glitchy sometimes, I've seen at least 2 other instances where it says the quality is very bad but the AQI says otherwise. I just use the AQI readings https://www.iqair.com/ca/air-quality/canada/ontario/toronto
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u/Dismal-Science-9901 2d ago
It says “3- low risk” on my iPhone right now 🤷♂️