North Carolina Air Quality Today: AQI by City, Smoke and Alerts

Fine particles on the map

Forecast fine particulate matter from NOAA’s National Air Quality Forecast Capability over North Carolina. 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 North Carolina right now. All North Carolina warnings.

By city, now and the days ahead94

Every AirNow reporting area in North Carolina: 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
Mecklenburg County	53	Moderate	Moderate	Good	PM2.5
Northampton County	52	Moderate	Good	Good	PM2.5
Cumberland County	51	Moderate	Moderate	Good	PM2.5
Rowan County	51	Moderate	Moderate	Good	PM2.5
Forsyth County-Winston-Salem-Greensboro-High Point	48	Good	Moderate	Good	PM2.5
North Ridges	48	Good	Moderate	Good	Ozone
Buncombe County	45	Good	Moderate	Good	PM2.5
Johnston County	44	Good	Moderate	Good	PM2.5
Catawba County	43	Good	Moderate	Good	PM2.5
Swain County	43	Good	Moderate	Good	PM2.5
Durham County	42	Good	Moderate	Good	PM2.5
South Ridges	42	Good	Moderate	Good	Ozone
Wake County	42	Good	Moderate	Good	PM2.5
Edgecombe County	38	Good	Moderate	Good	PM2.5
Mitchell County	33	Good	Moderate	Good	PM2.5
Pitt County	33	Good	Moderate	Good	PM2.5
New Hanover County	32	Good	Moderate	Good	PM2.5
Montgomery County	24	Good	Moderate	Good	Ozone
Person County	19	Good	Moderate	Good	Ozone
Granville County	18	Good	Moderate	Good	Ozone
Union County	18	Good	Moderate	Good	Ozone
Martin County	15	Good	Good	Good	Ozone
Lincoln County	14	Good	Moderate	Good	Ozone
Carteret County	10	Good	Moderate	Good	Ozone
Alexander County	8	Good	Moderate	Good	Ozone
Lenoir County	8	Good	Moderate	Good	Ozone
Caldwell County	5	Good	Moderate	Good	Ozone
Haywood County	5	Good	Moderate	Good	Ozone
Avery County	3	Good	Moderate	Good	Ozone
Alleghany County		No reading	Moderate	Good	PM2.5
Anson County		No reading	Moderate	Good	PM2.5
Ashe County		No reading	Moderate	Good	PM2.5
Beaufort County		No reading	Good	Good	Ozone
Bertie County		No reading	Good	Good	Ozone
Bladen County		No reading	Moderate	Good	PM2.5
Brunswick County		No reading	Moderate	Good	PM2.5
Burke County		No reading	Moderate	Good	PM2.5
Cabarrus County		No reading	Moderate	Good	PM2.5
Camden County		No reading	Good	Good	Ozone
Chatham County		No reading	Moderate	Good	PM2.5
Cherokee County		No reading	Moderate	Good	PM2.5
Chowan County		No reading	Good	Good	Ozone
Clay County		No reading	Moderate	Good	PM2.5
Cleveland County		No reading	Moderate	Good	PM2.5
Columbus County		No reading	Moderate	Good	PM2.5
Craven County		No reading	Moderate	Good	PM2.5
Currituck County		No reading	Good	Good	Ozone
Dare County		No reading	Good	Good	Ozone
Duplin County		No reading	Moderate	Good	PM2.5
Franklin County		No reading	Moderate	Good	PM2.5
Gaston County		No reading	Moderate	Good	PM2.5
Gates County		No reading	Good	Good	Ozone
Graham County		No reading	Moderate	Good	PM2.5
Greene County		No reading	Moderate	Good	PM2.5
Halifax County		No reading	Good	Good	Ozone
Harnett County		No reading	Moderate	Good	PM2.5
Henderson County		No reading	Moderate	Good	PM2.5
Hertford County		No reading	Good	Good	Ozone
Hoke County		No reading	Moderate	Good	PM2.5
Hyde County		No reading	Good	Good	Ozone
Iredell County		No reading	Moderate	Good	Ozone
Jackson County		No reading	Moderate	Good	PM2.5
Jones County		No reading	Moderate	Good	PM2.5
Lee County		No reading	Moderate	Good	PM2.5
Macon County		No reading	Moderate	Good	PM2.5
Madison County		No reading	Moderate	Good	PM2.5
McDowell County		No reading	Moderate	Good	PM2.5
Moore County		No reading	Moderate	Good	PM2.5
Nash County		No reading	Moderate	Good	PM2.5
Onslow County		No reading	Moderate	Good	PM2.5
Orange County		No reading	Moderate	Good	PM2.5
Pamlico County		No reading	Moderate	Good	PM2.5
Pasquotank County		No reading	Good	Good	Ozone
Pender County		No reading	Moderate	Good	PM2.5
Perquimans County		No reading	Good	Good	Ozone
Polk County		No reading	Moderate	Good	PM2.5
Richmond County		No reading	Moderate	Good	PM2.5
Robeson County		No reading	Moderate	Good	PM2.5
Rutherford County		No reading	Moderate	Good	PM2.5
Sampson County		No reading	Moderate	Good	PM2.5
Scotland County		No reading	Moderate	Good	PM2.5
Stanly County		No reading	Moderate	Good	PM2.5
Surry County		No reading	Moderate	Good	PM2.5
Transylvania County		No reading	Moderate	Good	PM2.5
Tyrrell County		No reading	Good	Good	Ozone
Vance County		No reading	Moderate	Good	PM2.5
Warren County		No reading	Good	Good	Ozone
Washington County		No reading	Good	Good	Ozone
Watauga County		No reading	Moderate	Good	PM2.5
Wayne County		No reading	Moderate	Good	PM2.5
Wilkes County		No reading	Moderate	Good	PM2.5
Wilson County		No reading	Moderate	Good	PM2.5
Yadkin County		No reading	Moderate	Good	PM2.5
Yancey County		No reading	Moderate	Good	PM2.5

The forecaster’s discussion

Written by Forsyth County Office of Environmental Assistance and Protection for Forsyth County-Winston-Salem-Greensboro-High Point and filed with AirNow.

Morning cloud cover has kept ozone production lower than expected, but sunnier skies this afternoon will likely allow ozone AQI to reach Code YELLOW. Particle pollution also remains elevated in the Code YELLOW range under a weakening surface high pressure ridge. Monday will likely be hot and humid for much of the day, allowing ozone and particle pollution levels to easily reach Codde YELLOW AQI for both pollutants. However, an advancing cold front from the north will likely bring scattered showers and storms to the Triad later in the afternoon and evening. Behind the front, air quality levels are expected to drop to Code GREEN by late Monday evening. Cold air damming begins to set up over the Triad and will settle over the region the next few days to bring cooler and cloudier conditions Tuesday and Wednesday. With that said, air quality levels will easily remain Code GREEN through mid-week as the cold air wedge takes hold. (Payne)

Smoke

Where NOAA’s Hazard Mapping System analysts have drawn wildfire smoke over North Carolina in today’s satellite imagery. Smoke drawn overhead is not always smoke at ground level; each town’s page carries the near-surface forecast.

Medium Charlotte, Raleigh, West Raleigh, Greensboro, Durham, Winston-Salem, Fayetteville, Cary, Wilmington, High Point, Asheville, Greenville, Concord, Gastonia, Jacksonville, Chapel Hill and 135 more

Smoke on the radar over North Carolina

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 North Carolina: what is measured nearby, the category forecast for today and tomorrow, and NOAA’s model hour by hour. Largest first.

249 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.