Where is the air quality worst around Kansas City? See for yourself with these 5 maps

Poor air quality is on the rise this summer around Kansas City, with the Mid-America Regional Council (MARC) issuing nine ozone alerts in the past month alone.

When you do a web search to check your local air quality, you’re likely to find the EPA’s AirNow site near the top of the list. This service measures air quality on a colored dial — and if you click through to “Sensors Near Me,” you’ll see a map with a few local markers showing air quality readings.

But this map can leave a lot to be desired: Only three sensors report data in central Kansas City, and just a handful more are located in the suburbs.

But this isn’t the only map available. We’ve gathered five other maps you can check out for more detailed information about smoke, smog, pollen and other air pollutants in the metro.

It’s hard to say whether certain areas of Kansas City have consistently worse air quality than others, because air pollution is always on the move and sensors aren’t evenly spaced at locations around the metro. But these maps can help you find the air quality sensors closest to you — and make more informed decisions about your respiratory health.

If the air pollution reading closest to your home is high (in the yellow, orange or red range), you may want to use extra caution when exercising or spending long periods of time outdoors. Here’s what to consider when air pollution levels are high in your area.

AirNow fire and smoke map

This U.S. government map combines data from the EPA, the U.S. Forest Service and other partner organizations to detect particulate matter from smoke in the area. Colored map markers show the ground-level particles at particular sensors.

These tiny particles often come from smoke, vehicle emissions, ground-level ozone and other pollutants — and their location close to the ground mean that Kansas Citians are more likely to breathe them in.

Layered gray map areas show where smoke pollution is most prevalent, although these plumes may not impact the air you breathe at ground level. Zooming out on this map allows residents to see how local conditions are connected to smoke patterns across the country.

This map also includes symbols for active and suspected fires on the ground. This data comes from the U.S. National Interagency Fire Center and from heat detections made by satellites.

PurpleAir air quality map

Operated by the company PurpleAir, this map uses personal air sensors around the metro to report ground-level air quality. Colored sensor points indicate the air quality using the colored categories established by the EPA.

Many of the sensors in Kansas City are operated by the local environmental nonprofit CleanAirNow. They are mostly concentrated in the historic Northeast, south of the Plaza, northern Johnson County and Kansas City, Kansas. This map is a great one to check for air quality reports outside of the downtown and midtown areas.

This map’s tools also allow users to adjust the period of time over which pollution particles are measured and choose what air quality standards to use — including filtering for different sizes of particulate matter.

PurpleAir also sells monitoring devices to track the air quality either inside your home or outdoors.

IQAir’s air quality map

This live map combines data from PurpleAir sensors and satellite projections of ground-level air quality. Unlike other maps, it shows moving particles to indicate the direction of winds that influence air quality in Kansas City.

This also colors map areas by the prevailing air quality ratings at sensors within them, providing a specific view of the air quality at one’s exact location. Below the map, the site provides a list of the local air quality sensors detecting the worst pollution in the area.

Children’s Mercy pollen and mold tracker

While not quite a map, this page offers the most up-to-date local air quality information for those with sensitivities to pollen and mold spores. This data, which is collected directly from the hospital’s sensors, contributes local pollen statistics to maps all over the country.

The page also includes the Mid-America Regional Council’s “Skycast” of air pollution levels predicted for the following day. This year so far, MARC has issued nine high-ozone alerts on days that meet the EPA’s standards for unhealthy air quality.

You can stay up to date on these alerts through the program’s Twitter page — MARC does not have a map of its own to track air pollution.

Agilaire map from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources

While this map only features a few sensors in the Kansas City area, it provides data on pollutants that many other sensors don’t track: nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide, both of which have a range of harmful effects on the lungs.

Missouri was recently cited by the EPA for its nitrous oxide levels — a group of harmful gasses, including nitrogen dioxide, that directly contribute to ground-level ozone. This pollutant typically comes from power plants and industrial facilities.

Sulfur dioxide is an air pollutant caused by burning a fuel that contains sulfur, such as coal, oil or diesel. Local levels of this gas can indicate how intense vehicle and industrial emissions are in Kansas City.

Agilaire sensors also measure particulate matter, a common air quality indicator that most of the other maps track as well.

Do you have more questions about air pollution in the Kansas City area? Ask the Service Journalism team at kcq@kcstar.com.