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Colorado air quality today

Updated · LIVE · 3 metros tracked

Across the 3 Colorado metros we measure, air is worst right now in Denver at AQI 61 (Moderate) and cleanest in Colorado Springs at AQI 35. That is a 26-point spread inside one state — a state-level number would hide it, which is why this page does not publish one.

Every Colorado metro we track

#MetroAQIUV nowDominant
1 Denver 61Moderate 5.1 PM2.5
2 Fort Collins 56Moderate 5 PM2.5
3 Colorado Springs 35Good 4.9 O3

Sun over Colorado today

The strongest UV in Colorado today is 9.4 (Very High) in Denver, arriving around 1pm local time. The mildest of the 3 metros we model here peaks at 8.6 in Colorado Springs.

9.4 Denver 1pm8.6 Fort Collins 12pm8.6 Colorado Springs 12pm

UV is modelled, not measured — unlike the AQI above it, which comes off an instrument. Hour by hour in Denver →

What stands behind these Colorado numbers

3 of the 3 metros here report from a named regulatory monitor — Denver-Boulder, Fort Collins, Colorado Springs. The dominant pollutant across Colorado today is PM2.5 in some metros, O3 in others.

We track 3 metropolitan areas in Colorado, not the whole state, and 3 of them have a page of its own. There is no state-wide average here on purpose: averaging 3 metros into one figure would invent a value for all the ground between them. How we measure, and what we refuse to estimate →

Neighbouring states

Smoke and inversions do not stop at a state line, so when Colorado looks wrong the answer is often next door.

ArizonaKansasNebraskaNew MexicoOklahomaUtahWyoming
Worst air in the US right nowHow Colorado compares against every metro we track What the number meansEPA bands, and where “unhealthy for everyone” starts

Updated