How's the air in Calgary? Here are 3 ways to find out

Whether you want easy-to-read info or detailed data, these websites will help you find it

Image | Calgary air quality

Caption: It's another hazy day in Calgary. The smell of smoke is pretty much gone, but the air quality in southern Alberta is still considered poor. (Brian Burnett/CBC)

These days, most of us have weather apps on our phones giving us forecasts and up-to-the-minute data on temperature, precipitation, wind speed and humidity.
Finding information on air quality, however, is a bit trickier.
We tend to take clean air for granted in this city, as it's rare that we have to worry about an abundance of pollutants or make plans around how smoky we expect it to be outside.
But Calgary does get poor air from time to time, so here are a few ways you can check on the city's air quality.

Environment Canada(external link)

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Environment Canada publishes a regular air quality health index(external link) that is concise and easy to read.
It also provides a forecast of what it expects air quality to be like over the next 18 hours, although these things can be difficult to predict.
Overall, it's a quick-and-easy way to get a rough gauge of how clean the air is and to make short-term plans.

Alberta Environment(external link)

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Alberta Environment publishes the same information but in a different format(external link).
At a glance, it provides a snapshot of current air quality levels across the province as well as forecasts for the next day.
Readings are collected from 34 communities across Alberta although forecasts are not available for all areas.

Calgary Region Airshed Zone(external link)

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The above two resources give you a top-level picture of air quality, but if you really want to drill down into the data, the Calgary Region Airshed Zone (CRAZ) is the website for you(external link).
It provides hour-by-hour readings of air quality levels at three monitoring stations across the city — one in the northwest, one downtown and one in the southeast.
It also allows you to see precise levels for 10 different types of pollutants, including fine particulate matter, ground-level ozone, sulphur dioxide and hydrogen sulphide.
The interactive graphing system also lets you see how the levels of these pollutants compare to health guidelines.