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South Dakota air quality today

Updated · LIVE · 2 metros tracked

Across the 2 South Dakota metros we measure, air is worst right now in Rapid City at AQI 52 (Moderate) and cleanest in Sioux Falls at AQI 21. That is a 31-point spread inside one state — a state-level number would hide it, which is why this page does not publish one.

Every South Dakota metro we track

#MetroAQIUV nowDominant
1 Rapid Cityno page yet 52Moderate 5.7 PM2.5
2 Sioux Fallsno page yet 21Good 6.3 O3

Sun over South Dakota today

The strongest UV in South Dakota today is 7 (High) in Sioux Falls, arriving around 1pm local time. The mildest of the 2 metros we model here peaks at 6.2 in Rapid City.

7 Sioux Falls 1pm6.2 Rapid City 12pm

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

What stands behind these South Dakota numbers

2 of the 2 metros here report from a named regulatory monitor — Sioux Falls, Rapid City. The dominant pollutant across South Dakota today is O3 in some metros, PM2.5 in others.

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

IowaMinnesotaMontanaNorth DakotaNebraskaWyoming
Worst air in the US right nowHow South Dakota compares against every metro we track What the number meansEPA bands, and where “unhealthy for everyone” starts

Updated