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Maryland Air Quality

Northern Baltimore is the worst air in Maryland right now at an index of 34, which is Good, from fine particles (PM2.5). AirNow carries 10 reporting areas in the state. No air quality alert is in force.

Reporting areas: 10
Worst index now: 34
Alerts in force: 0
Towns under smoke: Unavailable

Fine particles on the map

Forecast fine particulate matter from NOAA’s National Air Quality Forecast Capability over Maryland. Open it for the live map, where it pans and zooms.

Open the live map with the particulate forecast

Map layer from NOAA National Air Quality Forecast Capability. Boundaries from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet.

Alerts in force

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 in Maryland right now. All Maryland warnings.

By city, now and the days ahead10

Every AirNow reporting area in Maryland: what its monitors measured this hour, and what the state or local agency that forecasts for it expects today and tomorrow. Each area links to the nearest town’s page.

Reporting area	Now	Category now	Today	Tomorrow	Pollutant
Northern Baltimore	34	Good	Good	Good	PM2.5
Hagerstown Region	24	Good	Good	Good	PM2.5
Lower Eastern Shore	22	Good	Good	Good	Ozone
Northeast Maryland	19	Good	Good	Good	Ozone
Suburban DC	19	Good	Good	Good	Ozone
Southern Maryland	18	Good	Good	Good	Ozone
Metro Baltimore	17	Good	Good	Good	Ozone
Upper Eastern Shore	17	Good	Good	Good	Ozone
Western Maryland	16	Good	Good	Good	PM2.5
Maryland Piedmont	15	Good	Good	Good	Ozone

The forecaster’s discussion

Written by Maryland Department of the Environment for Northern Baltimore and filed with AirNow.

Ozone forecasting for 2026 ends today. Fine particle forecasting continues year-round. Early fall-like weather on Saturday will deliver clean conditions on mild and dry northeasterly winds. Good air quality results. Winds switch back to the south on Sunday. Humidity will increase as a warm front pushes towards the region, bringing with it dirtier air from our south. This may lead to a few higher hours of perhaps Moderate AQI due to fine particles on Sunday afternoon. However, overall exposure is expected to remain relatively low, with Good AQI expected for the daily average Sunday. Another cold front moves through late Sunday, delivering excellent air quality for Monday which will persist into mid-week. Fine particle concentrations are expected to be quite low, resulting in Good air quality for the region through the middle of next week. For the latest air quality information, please visit our website here. -MDE

Smoke

NOAA’s Hazard Mapping System smoke analysis could not be read just now.

Smoke on the radar over Maryland

What this means

The index runs from 0 to 500. Good is 0 to 50, Moderate to 100, Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups to 150, Unhealthy to 200, Very Unhealthy to 300, and Hazardous above that. The figure reported for a place is the highest index among the pollutants measured there, and the pollutant that produced it is named beside it.

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.

Towns

Air quality for any town in Maryland: what is measured nearby, the category forecast for today and tomorrow, and NOAA’s model hour by hour. Largest first.

314 smaller towns

Smaller places have pages too; search for one on the air quality landing page.

Sources

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.