Forums >General Running>running in smoke
Purple Air seems to update more frequently than Air Now.
I’m on the coast south of SF. Not terribly far from the CZU Lightning Complex Fire but good AQ right now. AQ really depends on the wind here.
5/11/24 Grizzly Peak Marathon, Berkeley, CA
7/20/24 Tahoe Rim Trail 56 miler, NV
9/21/24 Mountain Lakes 100, OR
I was just going to post about purple air!
It's easy to use.
https://www.purpleair.com/map?opt=1/mAQI/a10/cC0#1.21/0/-30
60-64 age group - University of Oregon alumni - Irreverent and Annoying
Purple Air is much better than Airnow or at least the granularity of location vs AQ is better. I ran a light track workout this morning near my house and Airnow listed the AQ as ~120 (but that was the same for all of San Jose and Cupertino as well). But Purple Air shows much better AQ where I am vs other parts of San Jose. The air lookt and smelt pretty clean this morning. Definitely good enough for me to run.
not bad for mile 25
I guess they couldn't call it Purple Haze.
Lol! The air really does appear to be purple in the right time of day.
purplehaze.com is available...
Ray
Tempted.
Problem Child
Depends where you live. Bay Area has a lot of purple air receptors. You also have to make sure it’s measuring particulate matter. If it measures ozone it will appear great until you go outside and pm is 237. “But the website said 48.”
Many of us aren't sure what the hell point you are trying to make and no matter how we guess, it always seems to be something else. Which usually means a person is doing it on purpose.
VDOT 53.37
5k18:xx | Marathon 2:55:22
The other thing about Purple Air, as I just learned yesterday, is that for smoke you want to set the Conversion option to LRAPA. The reason is that wood smoke particles are less dense than average PM2.5 particles. If you don’t, the shown value will be too high.
https://medium.com/@16fcali/understanding-purpleair-vs-airnow-gov-measurements-of-wood-smoke-pollution-562923a55226
Drive up 280 this morning to do a nice run at Ocean Beach. When I crossed over 92 the visibility from smoke was probably less than 300 feet. Worst I've ever been in. I checked the map and the readings were 500. When I got to SF it was foggy and cool but clean air. Great Highway is closed on Sundays for people to run bike skate whatever from Sloat to Lincoln and that was nice. Whatever benefit I got from a nice run with clean air was probably negated by that drive up 280. Even on recirc I could smell the campfire.
So smokey I can't see SF across the Bay from where I live, but it doesn't smell like smoke anymore. Went running an hour ago and it was fine, I think the smoke is getting blown upwards over the East Bay.
Raw value on Purple Air was over 600 today from my house in Portola Valley, west of 280. I kept waiting for the wind to change so I could do my long run... nope. Will have to drive somewhere tomorrow I guess.
I can’t believe some of you guys are able to run.. we were in dangerous levels today in the east bay. Smack dab in the center of the ring of Fire where all the smoke is collecting. Haven’t run all week. Probably couldn’t even run indoor even if I had a TM
Feel for ya Gizmodo. East Bay never seems to get a break from the smoke. What I find here in Cupertino is that about 4:50 or 5PM a breeze from the Bay picks up and rapidly brings the readings down from 200 down to <50 very quickly. It's a good window to go run. then about 8 or 9PM at latest the breeze dies down and the particulate levels climb again. The pattern is pretty reliable from what I've found. You just may have to drive somewhere with cleaner air to get your runs in. As I posted above I drove to SF yesterday. Counterintuitive that, to get to clean air, you have to drive to the big city!.
Bob, head up to Ocean Beach! Not too far a drive from you. Run up through GGNRA and maybe over the bridge and then back for your long run. Purpleair reports <20 there (LRAPA adjusted).
Feel for ya Gizmodo. East Bay never seems to get a break from the smoke. What I find here in Cupertino is that about 4:50 or 5PM a breeze from the Bay picks up and rapidly brings the readings down from 200 down to <50 very quickly. It's a good window to go run. then about 8 or 9PM at latest the breeze dies down and the particulate levels climb again. The pattern is pretty reliable from what I've found. You just may have to drive somewhere with cleaner air to get your runs in. As I posted above I drove to SF yesterday. Counterintuitive that, to get to clean air, you have to drive to the big city!. Bob, head up to Ocean Beach! Not too far a drive from you. Run up through GGNRA and maybe over the bridge and then back for your long run. Purpleair reports <20 there (LRAPA adjusted).
Good to know there’s relief just around the corner! Last time there was nothing for miles! Stay safe friend.