How to find fresh air via Google Maps

Air quality varies by location, day, and hour. Google Maps can help you locate cleaner air in your region. Know this.

Air quality affects life quality. Poor air quality can make whatever you’re doing tougher, especially for people with respiratory issues.

How to check air quality using Google Maps

The air quality layer in Google Maps (on both Android and iOS) gives data from sources such as the Environmental Protection Agency on the conditions in your area.

You may add the air quality layer to your map by touching the button in the upper-right corner of the screen and selecting “Air Quality.” It includes the Air Quality Index (AQI), a measure of how healthy or harmful the air is to breathe, as well as recommendations for outdoor activities and the date on which the information was most recently updated.

How to monitor wildfires

As we found last summer, even if you don’t live in a region prone to wildfires, smoke from flames on the west coast may travel to the east coast, resulting in particularly terrible air quality.

To monitor fire-related circumstances, you may enable the wildfire layer in Google Maps, which provides information from the National Interagency Fire Center on current fires in your region (NIFC).

You may also use Google Maps’ search tool to check for “wildfires near me,” which will provide information on air quality and the fire. In the coming months, Google will also include smoke data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for the whole United States.