New Jersey air quality

Carteret, New Jersey Air Quality

Middlesex County40.577, -74.228

The nearest monitor to Carteret, at Fresh Kills, 2 miles away, measured an index of 31 at Mon, 2:00 PM EDT, which is Good for ground-level ozone. New Jersey Dept. of Environmental Protection forecasts Good for Northeast Urban today and Good tomorrow. NOAA’s analysts drew light wildfire smoke over the town today.

Measured now
31 · Good
Today
35 · Good
Tomorrow
30 · Good
Pollutant
Ozone

Fine particles on the map

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

Forecast fine particulate matter from NOAA’s National Air Quality Forecast Capability over Carteret, New Jersey 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 near Carteret right now. All New Jersey warnings.

Now

Good

Nearest monitor
Fresh Kills, 2 miles away (site 360850111)
Index measured
31 · Good
Measured at
Mon, 2:00 PM EDT
Fine particles
2.5 µg/m³
Ozone
40 ppb
Reporting area
Northeast Urban, NJ, 8 miles away
Reported by
New Jersey Dept. of Environmental Protection
Area index
54 · Moderate

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

Today and tomorrow

New Jersey Dept. of Environmental Protection's own forecast for Northeast Urban, written by a forecaster rather than read off a model.

DayCategoryIndexPollutant
TodayGood35PM2.5
TomorrowGood30PM2.5

The forecaster’s discussion

Written by New Jersey Dept. of Environmental Protection for Northeast Urban and filed with AirNow.

9/21 - Partly to mostly cloudy skies, highs in the low 70s, and steady northeasterly winds will help to keep air quality in the Good category statewide today. 9/22 - Unsettled weather returns on Tuesday as an area of low pressure pushes into the Mid-Atlantic region, resulting in scattered showers, breezy winds persisting out of the northeast, and cooler temperatures in the low to mid 60s across New Jersey. Air quality will remain in the Good category statewide as a result.

Hour by hour

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 53, Moderate, around Mon, 11:00 PM EDT, from the run issued Mon, 8:00 AM EDT. This is a model, not a measurement.

HourIndexCategoryPM2.5Ozone
Mon, 10:00 AM EDT37Good6.5
Mon, 11:00 AM EDT36Good6.1
Mon, 12:00 PM EDT36Good6.4
Mon, 1:00 PM EDT33Good5
Mon, 2:00 PM EDT28Good4.2
Mon, 3:00 PM EDT27Good4.4
Mon, 4:00 PM EDT29Good6.231.1
Mon, 5:00 PM EDT32Good6.733.8
Mon, 6:00 PM EDT35Good736
Mon, 7:00 PM EDT41Good8.236.4
Mon, 8:00 PM EDT46Good9.335.3
Mon, 9:00 PM EDT46Good8.333.7
Mon, 10:00 PM EDT51Moderate10.131.1
Mon, 11:00 PM EDT53Moderate10.928.3
Tue, 12:00 AM EDT51Moderate8.225.6
Tue, 1:00 AM EDT44Good6.822.8
Tue, 2:00 AM EDT39Good6.319.8
Tue, 3:00 AM EDT38Good6.418.3
Tue, 4:00 AM EDT38Good6.718.2
Tue, 5:00 AM EDT38Good6.818
Tue, 6:00 AM EDT38Good717.8
Tue, 7:00 AM EDT36Good617.4
Tue, 8:00 AM EDT31Good4.816.2
Tue, 9:00 AM EDT27Good4.315.2
Tue, 10:00 AM EDT19Good2.214.5
Tue, 11:00 AM EDT17Good2.713.8
Tue, 12:00 PM EDT17Good2.912.8
Tue, 1:00 PM EDT16Good2.811.9
Tue, 2:00 PM EDT12Good1.711.8
Tue, 3:00 PM EDT10Good1.211.8
Tue, 4:00 PM EDT11Good1.512.3
Tue, 5:00 PM EDT11Good212.8
Tue, 6:00 PM EDT12Good2.813.9
Tue, 7:00 PM EDT17Good415
Tue, 8:00 PM EDT21Good4.315.9
Tue, 9:00 PM EDT16Good2.117.1
Tue, 10:00 PM EDT16Good2.117.7
Tue, 11:00 PM EDT17Good3.518.8
Wed, 12:00 AM EDT18Good2.519.5
Wed, 1:00 AM EDT19Good2.620
Wed, 2:00 AM EDT18Good319.7
Wed, 3:00 AM EDT17Good3.318.6
Wed, 4:00 AM EDT18Good3.517.4
Wed, 5:00 AM EDT18Good3.415.9
Wed, 6:00 AM EDT22Good4.614.4
Wed, 7:00 AM EDT22Good4.212.8
Wed, 8:00 AM EDT23Good4.211
Wed, 9:00 AM EDT24Good4.89.8
Wed, 10:00 AM EDT23Good4.19.6
Wed, 11:00 AM EDT23Good4.310.4
Wed, 12:00 PM EDT24Good4.711.6
Wed, 1:00 PM EDT23Good3.913.3
Wed, 2:00 PM EDT17Good2.115
Wed, 3:00 PM EDT15Good1.416.9
Wed, 4:00 PM EDT18Good1.719.5
Wed, 5:00 PM EDT19Good2.221.4
Wed, 6:00 PM EDT20Good2.523
Wed, 7:00 PM EDT21Good3.723.5
Wed, 8:00 PM EDT20Good3.622.9
Wed, 9:00 PM EDT20Good2.722.1
Wed, 10:00 PM EDT19Good2.921.3
Wed, 11:00 PM EDT20Good4.420.3
Thu, 12:00 AM EDT20Good3.619
Thu, 1:00 AM EDT21Good3.818
Thu, 2:00 AM EDT19Good3.416.5
Thu, 3:00 AM EDT19Good3.615.5
Thu, 4:00 AM EDT19Good3.615.3
Thu, 5:00 AM EDT20Good3.714.8
Thu, 6:00 AM EDT21Good4.114.3
Thu, 7:00 AM EDT21Good3.713.5
Thu, 8:00 AM EDT20Good3.512.7

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.

Smoke

NOAA’s Hazard Mapping System analysts drew light smoke over Carteret in satellite imagery today (Mon, 11:00 AM EDT to Mon, 1:00 PM EDT). That is smoke seen from above; it is not always smoke at ground level.

NOAA’s model forecasts near-surface smoke peaking at 0.1 µg/m³ around Sun, 11:00 PM EDT.

Smoke on the radar over Carteret

What this means

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.

Nearby

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

Weather forecast for CarteretWarnings in Middlesex CountyLive radar over CarteretNew Jersey air quality

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.