AQI

Venture Weather provides AQI as a paid subscription (in-app purchase). This is required due to the cost of obtaining the AQI data.

Currently, we support getting the AQI from Purple Air. Thus, in order to have accurate AQI for a given location in the app, there needs to be an air qaulity sensor nearby. Venture Weather will show a map for the area of your weather location and allow you to choose the nearest sensor/sensor of your choice. However, there may not be a sensor nearby. Thus, depending on what weather locations you are monitoring, you should first check the Purple Air map for nearby sensors before making the AQI purchase.

The current in-app purchase subscription cost is an annual fee, and covers as many weather locations as you need. This fee may be adjusted in the future depending on additional data sources and/or calculation needs. Consider it like buying me a nice coffee for a year’s worth of AQI data :)

Which AQI Value Should I Use?

Different countries and apps use many different ways to present an AQI value. Thus, Venture Weather allows you to choose which measurement/value you’d like to see, with the aim being to be consistent with AQI values you are used to seeing.

If you’d like to get a better understanding of AQI computations and the different color scales and formulas various countries use, the OpenAQ AQI Hub is a superb resource.

The most important aspect really is choosing the same measurement type across all your weather locations, so that they are comparable.

Beware when comparing AQI values across apps, as again, what exact calculation each app uses may differ, as well as what time frame the app is pulling data from (AQI is often provided in “real time”, 10 minute, 30 minute, 12 hour, or other time frames).

If you are unfamiliar with AQI values and the various variants, then I suggest you stick to the default that the app shows you (which is based on your country). Ultimately, for an app like this, the primary use will be to compare AQI across your various weather locations to help you choose which locations are best at a given time. Again, we recommend the primary use being to compare relative values, not the precise number.

More AQI Sources in the Future

I plan to add more AQI data sources in the future, however some will require significant user scale to be affordable on a per-user basis. New sources will be mentioned in app updates.