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North Carolina air quality today

Updated · LIVE · 2 metros tracked

Across the 2 North Carolina metros we measure, air is worst right now in Charlotte at AQI 56 (Moderate) and cleanest in Raleigh at AQI 55.

Every North Carolina metro we track

#MetroAQIUV nowDominant
1 Charlotteno page yet 56Moderate 7.9 PM2.5
2 Raleighno page yet 55Moderate 7.4 PM2.5

Sun over North Carolina today

The strongest UV in North Carolina today is 7.9 (Very High) in Charlotte, arriving around 1pm local time. The mildest of the 2 metros we model here peaks at 7.4 in Raleigh.

7.9 Charlotte 1pm7.4 Raleigh 1pm

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

What stands behind these North Carolina numbers

2 of the 2 metros here report from a named regulatory monitor — Mecklenburg County, Wake County. The dominant pollutant across North Carolina today is PM2.5.

We track 2 metropolitan areas in North Carolina, 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 North Carolina looks wrong the answer is often next door.

GeorgiaSouth CarolinaTennesseeVirginia
Worst air in the US right nowHow North Carolina compares against every metro we track What the number meansEPA bands, and where “unhealthy for everyone” starts

Updated