# Nashville, TN Air Quality Index (AQI) Today > Source: https://breathecheck.com/air-quality/us/tennessee/nashville/ > Live AQI for Nashville, TN with a plain verdict — go, short and unloaded, or don't go — plus the monitor behind it and our own hourly record. # Nashville, TN Air Quality Index (AQI) Today Readings collected automatically every hour; text written and checked by BreatheCheck Editorial . How this page is made → Right now: Nashville is at 74 , moderate . ## Is the air safe to breathe in Nashville today? In Nashville, BreatheCheck reads 74 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 At 74, this reading is past Asthmatic runner 's 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 O3 UV index 1 low · modelled UV hour by hour in Nashville → Days above AQI 100 3 of 30 days we have recorded The record, day by day → ### Cold air pooling in a limestone bowl Middle Tennessee’s Central Basin is a closed depression and Nashville occupies its floor. The Highland Rim rises 300 to 400 feet above that floor and runs the whole way around it. The bowl began as an uplift, the Nashville Dome, whose arched center then eroded faster than the ground around it until what had been high ended up low. The Cumberland River drains through the middle of it. The shape is shallow but continuous, and on a still autumn or winter night cold air settles onto the floor with a warmer layer sitting above it. That is when PM2.5 climbs. I-40, I-24 and I-65 all converge inside Davidson County, and a morning commute released under a lid a few hundred feet deep concentrates in a way the same traffic would not on open ground. The lid usually breaks by late morning and the reading follows it down. Summer swaps the problem to ozone, which is why Nashville’s air pollution control program forecasts it from March 1 through October 31 rather than only across the hottest weeks. Ozone is built in place out of exhaust, heat and sunlight, and it accumulates through the afternoon, well after the night’s lid has already lifted. The two problems here run on opposite halves of the day, off the same traffic. ## Where this number sits Of the 121 US metros reporting to us right now, Nashville is number 4 and the highest of the 2 we track in Tennessee. The pollutant driving it today is O3 . Nearby metros we also measure, and what they read at the same hour: - Huntsville, AL — 100 miles away, AQI 52 - Louisville, KY — 154 miles away, AQI 44 - Lexington, KY — 179 miles away, AQI 35 - Birmingham, AL — 183 miles away, AQI 93 Why a metro a short drive away reads differently → Where this reading comes from AirNow’s Nashville reporting area, about 6.4 miles from the metro centre. ## What has air quality in Nashville 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 | 74 | Moderate | 22 | | 2026-09-13 | 84 | Moderate | 23 | | 2026-09-12 | 61 | Moderate | 23 | | 2026-09-11 | 61 | Moderate | 23 | | 2026-09-10 | 58 | Moderate | 23 | | 2026-09-09 | 57 | Moderate | 23 | | 2026-09-08 | 53 | Moderate | 23 | | 2026-09-07 | 52 | Moderate | 23 | | 2026-09-06 | 84 | Moderate | 23 | | 2026-09-05 | 93 | Moderate | 23 | | 2026-09-04 | 105 | Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups | 23 | | 2026-09-03 | 140 | Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups | 24 | | 2026-09-02 | 143 | Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups | 23 | | 2026-09-01 | 74 | Moderate | 23 | | 2026-08-31 | 74 | Moderate | 23 | | 2026-08-30 | 59 | Moderate | 23 | | 2026-08-29 | 59 | Moderate | 23 | | 2026-08-28 | 64 | Moderate | 22 | | 2026-08-27 | 87 | Moderate | 23 | | 2026-08-26 | 58 | Moderate | 23 | | 2026-08-25 | 61 | Moderate | 23 | | 2026-08-24 | 54 | Moderate | 24 | | 2026-08-23 | 58 | Moderate | 23 | | 2026-08-22 | 67 | Moderate | 23 | | 2026-08-21 | 71 | Moderate | 23 | | 2026-08-20 | 71 | Moderate | 23 | | 2026-08-19 | 57 | Moderate | 23 | | 2026-08-18 | 60 | Moderate | 23 | | 2026-08-17 | 69 | Moderate | 26 | | 2026-08-16 | 74 | Moderate | 7 — partial day | ## Questions about Nashville **What is the air quality in Nashville right now?** AQI 74 — Moderate. That is number 4 of the 121 US metros reporting to us at this hour. **Which monitor does this number come from?** Nashville, about 6.4 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 Nashville compare with metros nearby?** At this hour: Huntsville 52, Louisville 44, Lexington 35, Birmingham 93. 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 Nashville → · Why apps disagree → ## Put this number in context On this page Alert me when Nashville turns One email when it crosses your threshold. Updated 14 Sep 2026, 22:12 UTC