Rhode Island 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 in Rhode Island right now. All Rhode Island warnings.

Every AirNow reporting area in Rhode Island: 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.

Written by Rhode Island Dept. of Environmental Management for Coastal and filed with AirNow.

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

Smoke on the radar over Rhode Island

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.

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

• Providence190,934 people
• Warwick81,699 people
• Cranston81,073 people
• Pawtucket71,591 people
• East Providence47,408 people
• Woonsocket41,475 people
• Coventry35,525 people
• Cumberland34,843 people
• North Providence33,835 people
• South Kingstown30,826 people
• West Warwick30,146 people
• Johnston29,247 people
• North Kingstown28,042 people
• Newport24,232 people
• Bristol22,795 people
• Smithfield21,872 people
• Lincoln21,670 people
• Central Falls19,303 people
• Westerly17,936 people
• Portsmouth17,756 people
• Middletown17,303 people
• Barrington16,669 people
• Narragansett15,868 people
• East Greenwich13,682 people
• Newport East11,769 people
• Valley Falls11,547 people
• Warren11,280 people
• North Smithfield11,212 people
• North Scituate11,171 people
• Greenville8,658 people
• Wakefield-Peacedale8,487 people
• Charlestown8,421 people
• Hopkinton8,261 people
• Cumberland Hill7,934 people
• Tiverton7,557 people
• Kingston6,974 people
• Exeter6,426 people
• West Greenwich6,135 people
• Jamestown5,755 people
• Foster4,598 people
• Pascoag4,577 people
• Narragansett Pier3,409 people
• Chepachet1,675 people
• Hope Valley1,612 people
• Harrisville1,605 people
• Ashaway1,485 people
• Bradford1,406 people
• Melville1,320 people
• New Shoreham1,047 people

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

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.