In the book “Around the World in 80 days”, the protagonist Phileas Fogg of London UK and his French valet Passepartout attempt to circumnavigate the world in 80 days on a £20,000 wager (roughly £2 million today).
Inspired by Phileas and Passepartout’s global travels, join us as we take a world tour through the lens of air quality monitoring guided by the Local Haze air quality monitoring app. We are taking a worldwide tour highlighting 80 AQI sensors around the globe, checking out how citizen scientists and air quality enthusiasts are monitoring their local air quality.
Our first stop was in London UK at Victoria station. We then travelled eastward for stop #2 on our tour to the beautiful city of Porto in northern Portugal. For our third stop on our global air quality tour, we visit Dakar, Senegal, West Africa.
Stop #3: Dakar, Senegal
Dakar is the capital and largest city of Senegal, located on the Cap-Vert peninsula on the Atlantic coast and the westernmost city on the African mainland. As of 2022, the population of the Dakar metropolitan area is estimated at 3,326,000.
The Dakarois (meaning “relating to Dakar”) climate is generally very warm, an ocean-influenced hot semi-arid climate with a short rainy season and a lengthy dry season. Dakar’s rainy season lasts from July to October, while the dry season covers the remaining eight months. Dakar has approximately 495 mm (19.5 in) of yearly rainfall. Between December and May, Dakar’s temperature is usually very warm, with daily temperatures around 24–27 °C (75.2–80.6 °F).
Although Dakar’s climate is cooled year-round by sea breezes, between the months of May and November, the city’s temperature becomes hotter, with daily highs reaching 29–31 °C (84.2–87.8 °F).
AQ sensor #3: Cité Cheikh Amar
For stop #3 on our tour, the air quality sensor located in Dakar is a PurpleAir monitor named Cite Cheikh Amar. On August 18, 2022, the Local Haze AQI reading for sensor Cite Cheikh Amar was 25, with a PM2.5 concentration of 6.00 micrograms/m^3 (micrograms per cubic meter). According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Air Quality Index (AQI), this reading for the AQ sensor Cite Cheikh Amar is considered “Good”.
As shown in the diagram below, the AQ readings for Dakar over the last two weeks show that the air quality has had consistent readings of “Good”. As noted earlier, Dakar is cooled year-round by sea breezes and Dakar’s good air quality for the last few weeks is likely due to this sensor being located on the ocean.
To get the current AQI reading for this PurpleAir sensor in Dakar, download Local Haze and search for sensor “Cite Cheikh Amar”.
Moving on to the next AQ sensor
To visit the next AQ sensor in our trip, we will depart Dakar and continue our travels east – like Phileas Fogg – across the globe, visiting sensors until we return to our starting point in London.
Join us as we travel to the next AQ sensor by following Local Haze on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Use the hashtag #ATW80AQ to join in the conversation and share your thoughts. Find out your local air quality for free by downloading the Local Haze app. Bon voyage!
About Local Haze
The Local Haze app is available for free download from the Apple App Store and monitors over 30,000 civic and low-cost air quality sensors over six continents.
