- Bushfire emergency monitoring is being undertaken at the following locations:
- Air quality across NSW may be affected by extensive smoke from bushfires, in particular, the mid-North Coast, Northern Rivers and Northern Tablelands regions. For more information on:
- smoke movement visit satview.bom.gov.au
- live fires visit Fires Near Me
- bushfire smoke health information visit NSW Health.
- Visibility (Vis or NEPH) is a good indicator for smoke. If the Visibility AQI is “Poor” or worse, then there is likely to be significant smoke outside. If Visibility is “Fair” (yellow), there could be some impact due to smoke. While visibility is also affected by dust, the instrument is more sensitive to smoke.
- Health message: find out what the AQI colours mean for your activity.
- Find the concentration units we report in.
Live air quality data - Special projects monitoring
View the latest air quality index (AQI) and concentration values for data collected from special monitoring projects.
Bushfire emergency monitoring is being undertaken at the following locations across NSW, using a series of temporary incident air quality monitoring instruments. Hourly updated data are made available on DPIE webpages, which you may access:
Questions about the status or management of the fire should be directed to NSW RFS. In case of emergency, always remember to dial Triple Zero (000).
The Katoomba Air Quality Monitoring Station is part of the Blue Mountains and Lithgow Air Watch Project led by NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA). Blue Mountains and Lithgow Air Watch is a temporary (12-month) project initiated by the local community to measure ambient air quality in the Blue Mountains and Lithgow. The project started in May 2019 and will conclude in May 2020.
As part of this project, 12 low-cost air quality (KOALA) sensors developed by Queensland University of Technology have been deployed at locations selected by community representatives. The use of KOALA sensors provides a cost effective and easy-to-operate way of observing air pollution trends across the Blue Mountains and Lithgow areas.
KOALA sensors used in this project do not comply with Australian Standards and only provide indicative measurements of PM10, PM2.5 and carbon monoxide. Current data from the KOALA sensors can be found on the KOALA webpage. Note that this website works best on the Chrome browser.
Further information regarding the Blue Mountains and Lithgow Air Watch Project can be found on the EPA's webpage.
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This information is also available by calling the NSW OEH Environment Line: 131 555 (local call cost throughout NSW) or (02) 9995 5555 (if calling from outside NSW).
Disclaimer: The data used in the compilation of this page have undergone only preliminary quality assurance checks. These data may require modification during final stages of validation as a result of calibration changes, power failures, instrument failures etc.