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South Carolina Air Quality

Charleston is the worst air in South Carolina right now at an index of 62, which is Moderate, from fine particles (PM2.5). AirNow carries 8 reporting areas in the state. No air quality alert is in force.

Reporting areas: 8
Worst index now: 62
Alerts in force: 0
Towns under smoke: Unavailable

Radar

Reflectivity now over South Carolina. Open it to see the particulate forecast on the map.

Open the live radar with the particulate forecast

Radar mosaic and map layers from NOAA MRMS and 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 South Carolina right now. All South Carolina warnings.

By city, now and the days ahead8

Every AirNow reporting area in South 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
Charleston	62	Moderate	Good	Not forecast	PM2.5
Columbia	55	Moderate	Good	Not forecast	PM2.5
Florence and Darlington	31	Good	Good	Not forecast	PM2.5
Greenville-Spartanburg	29	Good	Good	Not forecast	PM2.5
Aiken-Augusta - SC and GA	26	Good	Good	Not forecast	PM2.5
Myrtle Beach-Conway	17	Good	Not forecast	Not forecast	Ozone
Catawba Indian Nation	14	Good	Not forecast	Not forecast	Ozone
York, Chester, and Lancaster	14	Good	Good	Not forecast	Ozone

The forecaster’s discussion

Written by South Carolina DES for Charleston and filed with AirNow.

As of Saturday mid-afternoon, Catawba is trending Code Yellow for ground-level ozone concentration while the remaining forecast zones are trending Code Green for the rest of the day. Conditions should continue to be hot and humid in South Carolina on Sunday as the cold front passes through and the upper-level low pressure lingers over Florida. Mostly sunny to partly cloudy skies are likely along with chances for spotty precipitation. While there will be diurnal convection present, the overall risk for severe weather should remain low. Temperatures are forecast to be similar to today with highs in the upper 80s to low 90s and lows in the upper 60s to low 70s. Winds are expected to be light and variable in areas north of the I-20 corridor or have a light northeasterly to easterly flow with speeds around 4-7 mph on the other side. These variables support a clean air mass as the high levels of moisture play a major role toward inhibiting ozone production; therefore, the ozone forecast for Sunday projects all forecast zones to peak at CODE GREEN.

Smoke

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

Smoke on the radar over South 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 South Carolina: what is measured nearby, the category forecast for today and tomorrow, and NOAA’s model hour by hour. Largest first.

43 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.