Wildfire Smoke & Air Quality
Live air quality across 29 US and Canadian cities, beside the wildfires burning near each one. Air readings from Copernicus CAMS, fires from NASA FIRMS, both updated hourly.
| City | Air quality | EU AQI | US AQI | PM2.5 | Nearest fire |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Los Angeles United States | Poor | 64 | 61 | 18.5 | none within 800 km |
Vancouver Canada | Moderate | 60 | 85 | 40.5 | none within 800 km |
San Diego United States | Moderate | 56 | 72 | 21.4 | none within 800 km |
Seattle United States | Moderate | 47 | 55 | 15.3 | none within 800 km |
Denver United States | Moderate | 47 | 38 | 15.4 | none within 800 km |
Las Vegas United States | Moderate | 42 | 35 | 8.3 | none within 800 km |
Boston United States | Fair | 40 | 57 | 5.5 | none within 800 km |
Chicago United States | Fair | 38 | 50 | 11.2 | none within 800 km |
New York United States | Fair | 34 | 58 | 6.7 | none within 800 km |
Phoenix United States | Fair | 34 | 56 | 9.5 | none within 800 km |
Minneapolis United States | Fair | 34 | 26 | 6.3 | none within 800 km |
Washington, D.C. United States | Fair | 34 | 45 | 7.6 | none within 800 km |
Philadelphia United States | Fair | 33 | 49 | 6.5 | none within 800 km |
Houston United States | Fair | 31 | 58 | 10.6 | none within 800 km |
Ottawa Canada | Fair | 31 | 37 | 2.2 | none within 800 km |
Montreal Canada | Fair | 30 | 41 | 2.7 | none within 800 km |
Atlanta United States | Fair | 29 | 53 | 9.6 | none within 800 km |
Dallas United States | Fair | 26 | 43 | 7.2 | none within 800 km |
Detroit United States | Fair | 26 | 53 | 8.1 | none within 800 km |
Nashville United States | Fair | 26 | 50 | 7.9 | none within 800 km |
Orlando United States | Fair | 25 | 39 | 7.3 | none within 800 km |
Toronto Canada | Fair | 23 | 42 | 5.2 | none within 800 km |
Miami United States | Good | 17 | 24 | 2.6 | none within 800 km |
Edmonton Canada | Good | 17 | 27 | 2.3 | none within 800 km |
Austin United States | Good | 16 | 32 | 3.4 | none within 800 km |
San Antonio United States | Good | 15 | 32 | 3.8 | none within 800 km |
San Francisco United States | no reading | — | — | — | none within 800 km |
Calgary Canada | no reading | — | — | — | none within 800 km |
Portland United States | no reading | — | — | — | none within 800 km |
PM2.5 in µg/m³. Sorted worst first by European AQI. Air readings for 2026-09-10T06:00 UTC. A nearby fire is not evidence that a city's smoke came from it — wind decides that, and neither feed carries wind.
Common questions
Is wildfire smoke affecting air quality where I am?
This page reads air quality for 29 US and Canadian cities every hour and shows the nearest active fire to each. Right now Los Angeles has the worst air on the board at European AQI 64, and 6 of 26 cities are above the "fair" threshold. There are 0 active fire detections across North America.
Does a nearby fire mean the smoke came from it?
No, and this page does not claim it did. Smoke travels much further than the 800 km radius used here — Canadian smoke regularly reaches the US Gulf Coast — while a fire a few kilometres away may be blowing the other way. The distance column is a fact about where things are burning, not a statement about where a given city's smoke originated. Wind direction decides that, and neither feed carries it.
What does the AQI number mean?
The main figure is the European AQI, on the European Environment Agency scale: 0–20 good, 20–40 fair, 40–60 moderate, 60–80 poor, 80–100 very poor, above 100 extremely poor. The US AQI is shown beside it because the two scales are built differently and disagree on purpose — the same air can read "moderate" on one and "good" on the other.
What is PM2.5 and why does it matter for smoke?
PM2.5 is particulate matter under 2.5 micrometres across, small enough to reach deep into the lungs. It is the component of wildfire smoke that drives health warnings, and it moves faster than the headline index does — a rising PM2.5 with a still-moderate AQI is often the first sign smoke is arriving.
Where does this data come from?
Air quality comes from Open-Meteo, which serves Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service model output, updated hourly. Fire detections come from NASA FIRMS (VIIRS, 375 m resolution) for the last 24 hours. Both are read live; nothing on this page is estimated or carried over from a previous day.