Riverside County, California Air Quality

An Air Quality Alert is issued by the National Weather Service on behalf of a state or local agency when pollution is expected to reach a level that harms health. An Air Stagnation Advisory means the air will not move enough to clear what is already in it.

• Air Quality Alert Air Quality Alert issued September 24 at 1:32PM MST by NWS Phoenix AZImperial County Southwest; Chuckwalla Mountains; Imperial County Southeast; Imperial County West; Imperial Valley
  Full text

  * WHAT...The Imperial County APCD has issued an air quality alert due to harmful levels of particle pollution from windblown dust. Visit https://www.aqmd.gov/alertinfo to check current and forecasted air quality levels. * WHERE...in Imperial County. Levels of particle pollution can vary by time and location depending on emissions and local weather conditions. * WHEN...this afternoon, Sept 24 through this evening. * IMPACTS... Particle pollution can get deep into the lungs and cause serious health problems such as asthma attacks, heart and lung disease symptoms, and increased risk of lung infections. Everyone can be affected, but sensitive groups such as people with lung or heart disease, older adults, people who are pregnant, children, and those who spend a lot of time outdoors are at greater risk.

All California warnings

Good

Nearest monitor

Joshua Tree NP - Cottonwood Canyon 2, 10 miles away (site 060650010)

Index measured

38 · Good

Measured at

Thu, 6:00 PM PDT

Ozone

42 ppb

Reporting area

Coachella Vly, CA, 22 miles away

Reported by

South Coast AQMD

Area index

101 · Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups

Measured, not modeled. AirNow observations are preliminary until the operating agency certifies them, which happens months later.

South Coast AQMD's own forecast for Coachella Vly, written by a forecaster rather than read off a model.

NOAA’s National Air Quality Forecast Capability, bias-corrected against monitors, for this town’s own coordinate. The worst hour ahead is an index of 47, Good, around Sat, 10:00 AM PDT, from the run issued Thu, 5:00 AM PDT. This is a model, not a measurement.

Fine particles in micrograms per cubic meter, ozone in parts per billion as an 8-hour average. The index for each hour is EPA’s: the ozone figure is already the 8-hour average the ozone index is defined on, and the particle figure is run through EPA’s NowCast, which is how an hourly PM2.5 concentration becomes an index.

NOAA’s analysts have not drawn smoke over Riverside County in satellite imagery today.

NOAA’s model forecasts near-surface smoke peaking at 0.3 µg/m³ around Thu, 8:00 PM PDT.

Smoke on the radar over Riverside County

Good

Air quality is satisfactory, and air pollution poses little or no risk.

Who is affected

Nobody is expected to be affected.

What to do

It is a good day to be outside.

Index range

0 to 50

Category descriptions are the Environmental Protection Agency’s own.

What these numbers are. An index beside a monitor’s name is a measurement, published hourly by AirNow and preliminary until the operating agency certifies it. A category for today or tomorrow is a state or local agency forecaster’s own forecast for a reporting area. An hourly index is NOAA’s air quality model on a five-kilometer grid, not a reading from any instrument. Where a town has no monitor within reach, only the model figures appear, and the page says so.

The nearest towns with a page of their own, closest first.

• Thermal, CA11 miles
• Coachella, CA11 miles
• Mecca, CA13 miles
• Indio, CA13 miles
• Vista Santa Rosa, CA15 miles
• Bermuda Dunes, CA17 miles
• La Quinta, CA19 miles
• Indian Wells, CA20 miles

Observations and daily forecasts from AirNow, the US Environmental Protection Agency’s program with NOAA, the National Park Service, NASA, tribal, state and local agencies. Hourly forecasts from NOAA’s National Air Quality Forecast Capability. Smoke analysis from NOAA’s Hazard Mapping System. Alerts from the National Weather Service. Index categories and breakpoints are EPA’s, as revised in 2024.