# Las Vegas, NV Air Quality Index (AQI) Today > Source: https://breathecheck.com/air-quality/us/nevada/las-vegas/ > Live AQI for Las Vegas, NV with a plain verdict — go, short and unloaded, or don't go — plus the monitor behind it and our own hourly record. # Las Vegas, NV Air Quality Index (AQI) Today Readings collected automatically every hour; text written and checked by BreatheCheck Editorial . How this page is made → Right now: Las Vegas is at 51 , moderate . ## Is the air safe to breathe in Las Vegas today? In Las Vegas, BreatheCheck reads 51 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 runner one runner’s own 156-run log - 75–100 Daycare / school parents and staff in one r/toddlers thread, Aug 2025 — not a published rule - 100 Parent community-reported, escalating at 150 and 200 - 110 Runner community-reported EPA classifies 101–150 as Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups. That is an attributed classification, not a verdict on your lungs specifically. If you’re staying in, filter the room you’re actually in A portable HEPA unit or a Corsi-Rosenthal box — one builder put theirs at about $130 for a 12×14 bedroom. We don’t default to a MERV-13 swap in whole-house HVAC: it can restrict airflow, and the safe version needs a static-pressure check first. Dominant pollutant PM10 UV index 5 moderate · modelled UV hour by hour in Las Vegas → Days above AQI 100 3 of 30 days we have recorded The record, day by day → ### One basin, a reclassification, and desert dust In January 2025 the EPA reclassified the Las Vegas Valley from Moderate to Serious nonattainment for the 2015 eight-hour ozone standard, after the area failed to attain by its August 2024 deadline. The valley’s older problem moved the other way. Clark County spent years as a serious PM10 nonattainment area for windblown and construction dust, was found to be attaining that standard in 2010, and was formally redesignated with a maintenance plan in 2014. One piece of geography concentrates both. Nearly the whole metro sits inside a single closed basin, walled by the Spring Mountains on the west, the Sheep Range to the north and lower ranges east and south. Clear desert nights lose heat quickly, so by morning the coldest air in the valley is the air at the bottom of it, capped by a warmer layer overhead. Exhaust released into that stays in it until the cap breaks. The mechanism runs in the cold half of the year rather than the hot one, which is the opposite of what the climate suggests. What a daily figure handles badly is wind. A dry frontal passage lifts fine soil off the alluvial fans and off disturbed ground at the valley’s construction edges, the sky goes tan for an afternoon, and it clears about as fast as it arrived. Residents see that long before a 24-hour average does. ## Where this number sits Of the 121 US metros reporting to us right now, Las Vegas is number 27 and the highest of the 2 we track in Nevada. The pollutant driving it today is PM10 . Nearby metros we also measure, and what they read at the same hour: - Riverside, CA — 200 miles away, AQI 73 - Bakersfield, CA — 224 miles away, AQI 50 - Anaheim, CA — 225 miles away, AQI 46 - Los Angeles, CA — 228 miles away, AQI 60 Why a metro a short drive away reads differently → Where this reading comes from AirNow’s Las Vegas reporting area, about 5.3 miles from the metro centre. ## What has air quality in Las Vegas actually been? Daily maximum, our own readings. 30 days since 2026-08-16; nothing back-filled. Why we keep our own → 3 of the 30 days we have recorded so far went above AQI 100. | Date | Daily max AQI | EPA band | Hours read | | 2026-09-14 | 51 | Moderate | 22 | | 2026-09-13 | 45 | Good | 23 | | 2026-09-12 | 55 | Moderate | 23 | | 2026-09-11 | 49 | Good | 23 | | 2026-09-10 | 64 | Moderate | 23 | | 2026-09-09 | 60 | Moderate | 22 | | 2026-09-08 | 66 | Moderate | 23 | | 2026-09-07 | 41 | Good | 23 | | 2026-09-06 | 45 | Good | 23 | | 2026-09-05 | 48 | Good | 23 | | 2026-09-04 | 74 | Moderate | 23 | | 2026-09-03 | 128 | Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups | 24 | | 2026-09-02 | 80 | Moderate | 23 | | 2026-09-01 | 123 | Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups | 23 | | 2026-08-31 | 112 | Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups | 23 | | 2026-08-30 | 54 | Moderate | 23 | | 2026-08-29 | 58 | Moderate | 23 | | 2026-08-28 | 83 | Moderate | 22 | | 2026-08-27 | 86 | Moderate | 23 | | 2026-08-26 | 77 | Moderate | 23 | | 2026-08-25 | 74 | Moderate | 23 | | 2026-08-24 | 84 | Moderate | 24 | | 2026-08-23 | 74 | Moderate | 23 | | 2026-08-22 | 61 | Moderate | 23 | | 2026-08-21 | 74 | Moderate | 23 | | 2026-08-20 | 92 | Moderate | 23 | | 2026-08-19 | 62 | Moderate | 23 | | 2026-08-18 | 47 | Good | 23 | | 2026-08-17 | 51 | Moderate | 26 | | 2026-08-16 | 51 | Moderate | 7 — partial day | ## Questions about Las Vegas **What is the air quality in Las Vegas right now?** AQI 51 — Moderate. That is number 27 of the 121 US metros reporting to us at this hour. **Which monitor does this number come from?** Las Vegas, about 5.3 miles from the metro centre. One instrument reports for the whole metro, so the side farthest from it is the least well described. **How does Las Vegas compare with metros nearby?** At this hour: Riverside 73, Bakersfield 50, Anaheim 46, Los Angeles 60. A gap that size over that distance usually means different terrain, traffic or wind rather than a broken sensor. **Does this include pollen?** No. The AQI covers PM2.5 , PM10 , ozone, NO₂, SO₂ and CO. A high-pollen day can read clean here and still put someone in bed. What the number means, band by band → · UV in Las Vegas → · Why apps disagree → ## Put this number in context On this page Alert me when Las Vegas turns One email when it crosses your threshold. Updated 14 Sep 2026, 22:12 UTC