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Iowa air quality today

Updated · LIVE · 2 metros tracked

Across the 2 Iowa metros we measure, air is worst right now in Des Moines at AQI 37 (Good) and cleanest in Cedar Rapids at AQI 28.

Every Iowa metro we track

#MetroAQIUV nowDominant
1 Des Moinesno page yet 37Good 5.8 PM2.5
2 Cedar Rapidsno page yet 28Good 6.1 PM2.5

Sun over Iowa today

The strongest UV in Iowa today is 6.6 (High) in Cedar Rapids, arriving around 1pm local time. The mildest of the 2 metros we model here peaks at 6 in Des Moines.

6.6 Cedar Rapids 1pm6 Des Moines 1pm

UV is modelled, not measured — unlike the AQI above it, which comes off an instrument. How we handle UV →

What stands behind these Iowa numbers

2 of the 2 metros here report from a named regulatory monitor — Des Moines, Iowa City. The dominant pollutant across Iowa today is PM2.5.

We track 2 metropolitan areas in Iowa, not the whole state, and none of them has its own page yet — a metro page ships only after thirty days of our own history, and that clock is running. There is no state-wide average here on purpose: averaging 2 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 Iowa looks wrong the answer is often next door.

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

Updated