Right now: Cleveland is at 37, good.
Is the air safe to breathe in Cleveland today?
In Cleveland, BreatheCheck reads 37 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
Steel on the Cuyahoga, Trapped by Cold Mornings
Cleveland’s particle problem has an address. Steel has been made in the industrial flats along the Cuyahoga for more than a century, and a 2025 report by the nonprofit Industrious Labs identified Cleveland-Cliffs’ Cleveland Works as the largest single point source of carbon dioxide in Cuyahoga County, at 4.2 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2023. Carbon dioxide is not what the monitors report. But a coal-fed blast furnace operation of that size sits in the same place the fine particles do, alongside diesel from the port, the rail yards and the interstates running through the same valley.
The valley is the second half of it. The river cuts well below the plateau the rest of the city sits on, and on still, cold nights the air in the flats and along the lakeshore strip settles under warmer air above it, holding the previous evening’s mill output, truck exhaust and residential wood smoke near the ground until the mixing layer lifts in mid-morning.
None of that is marginal on the national picture. The American Lung Association’s 2026 State of the Air gave Cuyahoga County failing marks on all three measures it grades — ozone, daily particle pollution and year-round particle pollution. That verdict covers the whole county, and the air in the flats is not the air a few miles west of them.
Where this number sits
Of the 121 US metros reporting to us right now, Cleveland is number 71 and the highest of the 3 we track in Ohio. The pollutant driving it today is O3.
Nearby metros we also measure, and what they read at the same hour:
- Detroit, MI — 90 miles away, AQI 40
- Pittsburgh, PA — 115 miles away, AQI 41
- Columbus, OH — 126 miles away, AQI 34
- Buffalo, NY — 173 miles away, AQI 29
Where this reading comes from
AirNow’s Cleveland-Akron-Lorain reporting area, about 16.7 miles from the metro centre.
What has air quality in Cleveland actually been?
2 of the 30 days we have recorded so far went above AQI 100.
| Date | Daily max AQI | EPA band | Hours read |
|---|---|---|---|
| 80 | Moderate | 22 | |
| 58 | Moderate | 23 | |
| 63 | Moderate | 23 | |
| 93 | Moderate | 23 | |
| 65 | Moderate | 23 | |
| 88 | Moderate | 23 | |
| 104 | Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups | 23 | |
| 60 | Moderate | 23 | |
| 63 | Moderate | 23 | |
| 51 | Moderate | 23 | |
| 57 | Moderate | 23 | |
| 69 | Moderate | 24 | |
| 91 | Moderate | 23 | |
| 81 | Moderate | 23 | |
| 73 | Moderate | 23 | |
| 74 | Moderate | 23 | |
| 85 | Moderate | 23 | |
| 70 | Moderate | 22 | |
| 66 | Moderate | 23 | |
| 65 | Moderate | 23 | |
| 54 | Moderate | 23 | |
| 94 | Moderate | 24 | |
| 93 | Moderate | 23 | |
| 73 | Moderate | 23 | |
| 95 | Moderate | 23 | |
| 103 | Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups | 23 | |
| 79 | Moderate | 23 | |
| 62 | Moderate | 23 | |
| 52 | Moderate | 26 | |
| 76 | Moderate | 7 — partial day |
Questions about Cleveland
What is the air quality in Cleveland right now?
Which monitor does this number come from?
How does Cleveland compare with metros nearby?
Does this include pollen?
Put this number in context
Updated