New Montana Air Quality Map Shows Hour-by-Hour Smoke Levels
The Montana Department of Environmental Quality has a new way for Montanans to see how forest fire smoke is effecting the air in their community.
"We have the "Today's Air" website, which shows you the almost real time concentrations across the state for PM 2.5," said Montana DEQ spokeswoman Kirsten Martin. "It's updated every hour, so there's only a one hour delay from when it's measured. It's for the public so they can see what's going on during wildfire season."
Public health was the main reason the state put the website together.
"When air quality is poor due to wildfire smoke, people should limit their outdoor activities and make better decisions about when they should exercise and when kids should play outside. If people look on and see that air quality is poor they might want to delay their activities until air quality improves; green means good air quality and it goes all the way up to hazardous (dark red) air quality."