Right now: Raleigh is at 53, moderate.
Is the air safe to breathe in Raleigh today?
In Raleigh, BreatheCheck reads 53 as Go. The cutoffs: go below 101, keep it short and easy from 101 to 150, move it indoors above 150. These are our own thresholds, drawn on the EPA bands — EPA itself classifies 101–150 as Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups and does not tell you how long to stay out.
Go AQI 0–100
Normal outdoor plans. No change needed.
Short & unloaded AQI 101–150
A 20-minute dog walk, not a 2.5-hour run. Keep it brief and easy.
Don’t go AQI 151+
Move it indoors. Above 200 that becomes everyone, not just sensitive groups.
Above 200 this stops being a personal call: everyone indoors.
Duration and intensity are two separate dials
| Under 20 min | 20–60 min | Over an hour | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Easy | Go | Go | Go |
| Moderate | Go | Go | Go |
| Hard | Go | Go | Go |
Go Every combination lands the same way at this reading — a hard hour is no different from an easy twenty minutes. The two dials separate above 80.
Where people actually draw the line
All the thresholds people reported, and who reported them
- 60 Asthmatic runnerone runner’s own 156-run log
- 75–100 Daycare / schoolparents and staff in one r/toddlers thread, Aug 2025 — not a published rule
- 100 Parentcommunity-reported, escalating at 150 and 200
- 110 Runnercommunity-reported
If you’re staying in, filter the room you’re actually in
Pollen too coarse for the PM10 cutoff
What residents see in spring is not in this number at all. Tree pollen in the Triangle peaks from late March into April, and pine is the visible part of it. Those grains run tens of microns across, well above the ten-micron ceiling that defines PM10 and far above anything a PM2.5 monitor counts.
The counting is done by the same agency all the same. North Carolina’s Division of Air Quality operates one pollen sampler in the state, on Reedy Creek Road in Raleigh, read under a microscope Monday through Friday for the previous day’s total, and it publishes that count on its own because pollen is not one of the pollutants the AQI is calculated from. The practical result is a morning when every car on the street is filmed yellow and this page still reads Good. Both are accurate. They are measuring different things, and the yellow film is the one that is not being measured here.
The regulated pollutant here has always been ozone. EPA designated the Triangle nonattainment for the 1997 eight-hour standard in April 2004, covering Wake, Durham, Orange, Person, Granville, Franklin and Johnston counties, and moved it back to attainment and maintenance at the end of 2007. Terrain played little part in either direction. Relief across Wake County is measured in tens of feet, so nothing here traps and nothing has to be vented.
Where this number sits
Of the 121 US metros reporting to us right now, Raleigh is number 19 and the highest of the 2 we track in North Carolina. The pollutant driving it today is PM2.5.
Nearby metros we also measure, and what they read at the same hour:
- Charlotte, NC — 129 miles away, AQI 52
- Richmond, VA — 139 miles away, AQI 39
- Virginia Beach, VA — 166 miles away, AQI 46
- Columbia, SC — 182 miles away, AQI 54
Where this reading comes from
AirNow’s Wake County reporting area, about 11.1 miles from the metro centre.
What has air quality in Raleigh actually been?
0 of the 30 days we have recorded so far went above AQI 100.
| Date | Daily max AQI | EPA band | Hours read |
|---|---|---|---|
| 53 | Moderate | 22 | |
| 49 | Good | 23 | |
| 63 | Moderate | 23 | |
| 56 | Moderate | 23 | |
| 52 | Moderate | 23 | |
| 54 | Moderate | 23 | |
| 51 | Moderate | 23 | |
| 45 | Good | 23 | |
| 49 | Good | 23 | |
| 61 | Moderate | 23 | |
| 63 | Moderate | 23 | |
| 87 | Moderate | 24 | |
| 68 | Moderate | 23 | |
| 59 | Moderate | 23 | |
| 64 | Moderate | 23 | |
| 54 | Moderate | 23 | |
| 57 | Moderate | 21 | |
| 61 | Moderate | 22 | |
| 72 | Moderate | 23 | |
| 66 | Moderate | 23 | |
| 62 | Moderate | 23 | |
| 56 | Moderate | 24 | |
| 54 | Moderate | 23 | |
| 48 | Good | 23 | |
| 59 | Moderate | 23 | |
| 71 | Moderate | 23 | |
| 53 | Moderate | 23 | |
| 58 | Moderate | 23 | |
| 67 | Moderate | 26 | |
| 66 | Moderate | 7 — partial day |
Questions about Raleigh
What is the air quality in Raleigh right now?
Which monitor does this number come from?
How does Raleigh compare with metros nearby?
Does this include pollen?
Put this number in context
Updated