Santa Cruz 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.

None are in force near Santa Cruz County right now. All California warnings.

Moderate

Nearest monitor

Santa Cruz AMS, 3 miles away (site 060870007)

Index measured

61 · Moderate

Measured at

Tue, 6:00 PM PDT

Fine particles

15 µg/m³

Ozone

32 ppb

Reporting area

Scotts Valley, CA, 2 miles away

Reported by

Monterey Bay Unified APCD

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

Monterey Bay Unified APCD's own forecast for Scotts Valley, written by a forecaster rather than read off a model.

Written by Monterey Bay Unified APCD for Scotts Valley and filed with AirNow.

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 57, Moderate, around Thu, 9:00 PM PDT, from the run issued Tue, 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 Santa Cruz County in satellite imagery today.

NOAA’s model forecasts near-surface smoke peaking at 0.2 µg/m³ around Tue, 7:00 PM PDT.

Smoke on the radar over Santa Cruz County

Moderate

Air quality is acceptable. There may be a risk for some people, particularly those who are unusually sensitive to air pollution.

Who is affected

People who are unusually sensitive to ozone or fine particles.

What to do

If you are unusually sensitive, consider making long or intense outdoor activity shorter or easier.

Index range

51 to 100

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.

• Pasatiempo, CA2 miles
• Scotts Valley, CA2 miles
• Live Oak, CA3 miles
• Mount Hermon, CA3 miles
• Santa Cruz, CA4 miles
• Soquel, CA4 miles
• Twin Lakes, CA4 miles
• Felton, CA4 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.