AccuWeather is pleased to announce an exclusive partnership with Paris-based Plume Labs, an innovative company dedicated to making air quality information more accessible to people worldwide. The partnership represents the only collaboration to incorporate localized air quality information into weather forecasts for every location around the world, providing AccuWeather app, web and mobile web users with the most complete intelligence regarding how weather impacts their health and wellbeing. 

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), an estimated 4.2 million premature deaths globally are linked to ambient air pollution, mainly from heart disease, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lung cancer, and acute respiratory infections in children. More specifically, the WHO attributes worldwide ambient air pollution as the cause of 29 percent of all deaths and disease from lung cancer; 17 percent of all deaths and disease from acute lower respiratory infection; 24 percent of all deaths from stroke; 25 percent of all deaths and disease from coronary heart disease; and 43 percent of all deaths and disease from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

As air pollution becomes an increasingly prevalent problem globally, AccuWeather, in concert with industry leader Plume Labs, seeks to empower digital users with air quality information to make better, healthier decisions. AccuWeather's confidence in the quality of its data has led the company to taking an ownership stake in Plume Labs.

"We are pleased to support Plume Labs as an investor and partner in innovation," said AccuWeather President Steven R. Smith. "When combining the Superior Accuracy of AccuWeather forecasts with crucial air quality data from Plume Labs, we take the charge to apply science for the protection of people one step further, providing our customers with a more personalized user experience and a 360-degree view of the impact of weather on their wellness. This strategic alliance with Plume Labs, the first of its kind with a weather company, extends the ability of Plume Labs to reach even more people and heightens the level of options available to our users, putting them in greater control of their health."

Plume Labs is an environmental tech company on a mission to make air pollution information accessible and empowering. The company is best known for having brought to market the award-winning personal air pollution sensor Flow, which helps consumers track, understand, and take action to decrease their exposure to air pollution. By gathering data from the most comprehensive sources of air pollution information around the world, Plume Labs builds global maps and forecasts of air quality levels with industry-leading, unprecedented accuracy, and granularity.

"Air pollution shortens millions of lives every year, but consumers largely lack the information they need to protect themselves," says Romain Lacombe, Plume Labs founder and CEO. "We created Plume Labs to make information on what we breathe accessible to everyone, by using the most innovative predictive technologies to forecast air quality. We've found a kindred spirit in the AccuWeather team's steadfast focus on delivering the very best forecast accuracy to their customers. This exciting partnership is a recognition of our industry-leading air quality data platform, and of the rising importance of real-time, personalized environmental information for consumers worldwide."

Plume Labs Partnership Latest Health Innovation from AccuWeather

Because weather impacts so many health-related conditions, AccuWeather continues to be responsive to consumer input and demand in making health and wellness a central focus to its extensive and growing menu of digital features.

The Allergy Indicator page on AccuWeather's digital properties was updated and enhanced to provide a more in-depth view of increased allergy levels in a specific area with easy-to-read maps to identify geographical areas of vulnerability. AccuWeather expanded its Allergy section right on the app's home screen to include impact levels of the five top allergens – tree pollen, grass pollen, ragweed pollen, mold, and dust and dander. Notably, AccuWeather will be further upgrading its pollen/allergy forecast capability with data sets from Plume Labs later this year, targeting allergy season.
In a research partnership with the Biocomplexity Institute at the University of Virginia, cutting-edge flu forecasting technology is now delivered to app users, helping to increase flu knowledge and awareness throughout the United States. The 2019 and 2020 flu season alone has been more active than normal, according to the Institute. With increased awareness, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notes that there have been 1.5 million more doses of flu vaccine administered this year compared with last year.
AccuWeather introduced its RealFeel® Temperature Guide to help people maximize their health, safety and comfort when outdoors. This latest one-of-a-kind and important reference tool, available at AccuWeather.com/RealFeelExplained, enables individuals and families to assess how the weather conditions impact their bodies and activities.

The guide incorporates the patented and unique AccuWeather RealFeel Temperature, invented by AccuWeather more than 20 years ago to help people determine how the air feels outside and has been available on the company's apps and accuweather.com web site since then. It is the only measure that includes the effects of all the weather factors that impact how humans feel and perceive the air outside. Multiple patents ensure that the AccuWeather RealFeel Temperature is the only index that considers more than temperature plus one additional variable. In fact, it uses more than a dozen atmospheric factors to provide the only accurate measure of how current or forecasted weather conditions "feel."
In September, AccuWeather added RealFeel Shade™ indicator to its digital-based products to help users determine what the air will feel like in the shade, which is extremely helpful when planning outdoor activities because the variance of just a few degrees can feel significantly different.
The addition of a UV Index to forecasting information on AccuWeather platforms gives users a clearer understanding of how powerful the sun's rays will be, helping with planning for outdoor activities and mitigating overexposure to the sun; the dangers of which have been related to heat stroke, dehydration, and even skin cancer.

AccuWeather's superiority in weather forecasting and communicating the impacts of weather to benefit the public, business and society is indisputable; AccuWeather holds more than 150 unique patents and has more than 250 pending patent applications globally. The company has made significant advancements in many scientific fields and has developed thousands of other innovations and intellectual property, many of which have received awards. The integration of Plume Labs world-class air quality data into AccuWeather's digital assets is another step forward in that leadership with more advances on the horizon.

Plume Labs' award-winning data, insights, and products have improved the lives of people around the world, helped to inform corporate partners, and even drive change for entire cities – helping everyone breathe cleaner air. Learn more about their work and products at plumelabs.com.