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Washington air quality today

Updated · LIVE · 2 metros tracked

Across the 2 Washington metros we measure, air is worst right now in Spokane at AQI 69 (Moderate) and cleanest in Seattle at AQI 18. That is a 51-point spread inside one state — a state-level number would hide it, which is why this page does not publish one.

Every Washington metro we track

#MetroAQIUV nowDominant
1 Spokane 69Moderate 1.7 PM2.5
2 Seattle 18Good 0.3 O3

Sun over Washington today

The strongest UV in Washington today is 5.2 (Moderate) in Spokane, arriving around 1pm local time. The mildest of the 2 metros we model here peaks at 2.5 in Seattle.

5.2 Spokane 1pm2.5 Seattle 2pm

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

What stands behind these Washington numbers

2 of the 2 metros here report from a named regulatory monitor — Seattle-Bellevue-Kent Valley, Spokane. The dominant pollutant across Washington today is O3 in some metros, PM2.5 in others.

We track 2 metropolitan areas in Washington, not the whole state, and 2 of them have a page of its own. 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 Washington looks wrong the answer is often next door.

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

Updated