How Watch Duty Presents PurpleAir Data Alongside Wildfire Reports
Large and threatening wildfires are becoming increasingly common, especially in areas that are already predisposed to them.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), “the number of large fires between 1984 and 2015” doubled. This increase places a growing number of people in wildfire—or wildfire-adjacent—situations. Watch Duty endeavors to help in this area by aiding in the distribution of relevant public safety information. As the CEO of Watch Duty, John Mills, said to us, “Real-time AQI is paramount in the increasingly fire-prone world that we live in.”
Who Is Watch Duty?
According to their website, “Watch Duty is a non-profit, nonpartisan, and non-government organization focused on disseminating public safety information in real time from verified sources.” In other words, they serve pertinent information and updates on growing public safety situations to impacted populations. Comprised of a small team of staff members and a larger volunteer force, Watch Duty calmly and quickly assesses real-time public safety situations and addresses them appropriately. If they determine your area to be at risk, you will be the first to know.
Helmed by ambitious entrepreneurs, Watch Duty is wholly set on benefitting their community by honoring “integrity and correctness over speed or sensationalism.” This ensures that you can trust the information you see on their platform. Furthermore, despite their commitment to integrity over speed, they often get you relevant information quicker than any other organization or service. This is because the people that makeup Watch Duty are organized professionals who don’t take your safety lightly.
Recently, in line with their mission, Watch Duty announced a collaboration with the California State Parks system. In response to wildfire events, California State Parks will now post updates directly to the Watch Duty platform, further benefiting the Watch Duty community in California.
Watch Duty and PurpleAir
Watch Duty's leading service is its map, which is available as a mobile app or on a browser. It regularly updates data pertaining to wildfires, controlled burns, wind direction, air quality, and more. Alone, these data sources are helpful in their own ways. When used in conjunction, however, they give you an overview of environmental conditions in your area.
Using the Watch Duty service, you can actively monitor the behavior of wildfires near you, see which directions wind and smoke may be heading, and ultimately, track the air quality of sensors in those directions. In a discussion with us, John Mills noted this benefit, saying that when “paired with wind data,” PurpleAir data allows them “to see where smoke and fire are heading.”
If it is determined that a fire is becoming too unstable to contain, Watch Duty will inform you if they believe there is a threat to life or property.
People understand that fires, especially wildfires, are dangerous. Of course, an uncontrolled fire anywhere close to your vicinity is an immediate threat to health and safety. Extending beyond the immediate danger of a fire, air quality becomes a concern over a much wider area. In that larger range, air quality can worsen to unhealthy or dangerous levels. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), “larger and more intense wildfires are creating the potential for greater smoke production and chronic exposures in the US.” Outside of immediate dangers, “wildfires increase air pollution in surrounding areas and can affect regional air quality.”
The inclusion of PurpleAir data in the Watch Duty service lets users see for themselves how a fire might affect their air quality. With this knowledge, they can take the proper precautions and safeguard their air.
What’s Next?
Having created a sturdy reporting network in California and other western states, Watch Duty is looking elsewhere for further expansion. Their main focus is to reach more communities, especially those in areas prone to wildfires. As part of these plans, they were in the process of organizing the deployment of a supported network in Texas. However, the timeline of this release was hastened by the record-breaking fires experienced in the panhandle earlier this year. In an effort to protect public safety, Watch Duty facilitated an emergency deployment in Texas. Quickly after deployment, they were able to get in contact and work with the Texas Department of Emergency Management and the Texas Forest Service.
This deployment underscores Watch Duty’s dedication to your safety. The wider their reach, the more benefit they can provide. Buy a PurpleAir sensor today and join the Watch Duty community!