TL;DR

The live AQI map above shows what Reno is breathing right now, drawn from the monitors Northern Nevada Public Health runs across Washoe County. Anything under 50 is Good, and above 100 sensitive groups should ease off outdoors. Two things drive most of Reno's swings: Sierra smoke in late summer and wood smoke trapped under winter inversions. The map covers the air outside, and filtration decides how much of it reaches you indoors.

Reading Reno's Live AQI Map At A Glance

Start with the map above, which reports from sites across the Truckee Meadows and North Valleys, color-coded to the six EPA categories, so the color answers your question before the number does. It also names the pollutant driving that reading, since smoke and ozone call for different responses.

Key Takeaways

• Wildfire emissions drove 56 to 65 percent of Reno's fine particulate in July, August and September, 2016 to 2021.

• Wood burning produces around 40 percent of wintertime fine particulate in the Truckee Meadows.

• Reno's worst air on record came in August 2021, when Caldor and Dixie smoke drove Washoe County's 24-hour AQI to 291.

• The EPA recommends MERV 13, or the highest rating your system accepts, during wildfire smoke events.

Every AQI Band On The Map, And Your Move At Each One

The U.S. AQI runs 0 to 500 across six categories. Match the color on the map to the row below, bearing in mind that what applies depends on the current reading.

Category names, ranges and colors are EPA's. Follow the category shown on the live map above. AQI 100 is where Filterbuy tells customers to act, which sits at the top of Moderate rather than at an EPA category change.

Why The Number Lags What You See Over The Truckee Meadows

The valley looks brown and the dial says moderate. EPA reports current AQI as a NowCast, an average of up to 12 previous hours weighted toward the most recent three, so a plume off the Sierra crest beats the number by an hour or two. Smoke also settles onto the valley floor overnight and mixes out as the day warms, so a 5 a.m. and a 2 p.m. reading can disagree about the same day.

Can You Breathe Easy In Reno Today?

Whether Reno's air is safe today depends on the map. Below 50 it is good for everyone, and 51 to 100 acceptable for most. Above 100, children and adults over 65 should scale back outdoors, and above 150 everyone should. With asthma, COPD or a heart condition, follow your doctor's plan and Northern Nevada Public Health's guidance rather than a number on a map.

Where Northern Nevada Posts Tomorrow's Air, And What The Burn Code Asks Of You

Reno's forecasts and alerts come from the Air Quality Management Division of Northern Nevada Public Health, which escalates through three stages: Alert, Warning and Emergency. AirNow's EnviroFlash service emails Washoe County forecasts before conditions turn.

Between November 1 and the end of February it also runs Keep It Clean, Know The Code, a daily burn code posted by 3 p.m. Green means you may burn dry, seasoned wood, yellow asks you to hold off, and red bans residential burning for 24 hours. It covers ZIP codes from Washoe Valley to Silver Knolls, including 89501, 89502, 89509 and 89523 in Reno and 89431 in Sparks. If wood is your only heat source, file a sole source declaration with the division each winter to stay exempt.

How Readings Split Across The Reno And Sparks Basins

Reno's AQI is not one number but seven, and those sites sit in basins that vent at different rates, so two readings from the same hour can honestly disagree.

Sites per Northern Nevada Public Health's ambient air monitoring network. For a current reading near you, use the map above.

What Actually Drives Reno's AQI: Smoke, Wood Stoves, Ozone And Dust

Six pollutants feed the AQI and the highest sets the number, which in Reno is almost always fine particulate. Washoe County's 2022 readings show it arriving in three waves.

• January, the wood smoke month. Sixteen of 31 days ran Moderate, no fire anywhere.

• July, the ozone month. Nineteen Moderate days, plus the year's only ozone day rated Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups.

• September, the smoke month. Six Unhealthy days, two Very Unhealthy.

Nothing else comes close, and two of those peaks are not fire.

Late summer is Sierra smoke. Research measuring Reno air across 2016 to 2021 attributed 56 to 65 percent of July through September fine particulate to wildfire emissions. A 2026 Desert Research Institute study found PM2.5, the fine particles in smoke, above federal standards on 18 of 50 smoke days. Track fires on the Reno wildfire and smoke map.

Winter is wood smoke, around 40 percent of cold-season fine particulate in the Truckee Meadows, pinned to the valley floor by an inversion.

Ozone is the hot-afternoon problem, and it behaves differently indoors. It breaks down quickly once inside, so closing the windows largely handles it. Fine particulate does not cooperate. It drifts in around doors and windows, rides in on clothing and stays airborne for hours, which leaves filtration as the only thing that removes it.

Coarse dust counts too. EPA made the Truckee Meadows a serious PM10 nonattainment area in 2001, later redesignated it to attainment, and the region now runs its second ten-year PM10 maintenance plan.

Where Reno Now Ranks Against The Rest Of The Country

Reno's short-term particle pollution improved sharply in the latest national assessment. The American Lung Association's State of the Air 2026 report named Reno-Carson City-Gardnerville Ranchos one of six metro areas that left the Worst 25 list for daily particle pollution. Nevada posted the largest statewide improvement in the country.

A western metro improving on particle pollution is not the story most people expect. Read it against the dates, since the report covers 2022 through 2024, quieter fire years than 2020 and 2021. Compare statewide on our live Nevada AQI map.

Sierra Wildfire Smoke Over Reno: The Order To Work Through

Smoke from California's Sierra fires is Reno's defining risk. In August 2021, Caldor and Dixie smoke pushed Washoe County's 24-hour AQI to 291, the worst since monitoring began in 1963, and every school in the county closed.

When the AQI near you reaches 100, this is the order Filterbuy, a US air filter manufacturer, works through.

1. Fit a MERV 13 filter in the HVAC. That is the whole-home layer, since the central system moves far more air than any portable unit. Confirming it suits your slot is a normal fit check, like confirming a size.

2. Set the thermostat fan to On. On Auto it filters only while the system runs.

3. Add a portable HEPA air cleaner in each occupied room, bedrooms first. That is a second layer doing a different job, not an alternative.

4. Close the house up, and add no smoke of your own. No candles, no frying, no vacuuming without a sealed unit.

That order matches CDC guidance for wildfire smoke, with one caution on equipment. Skip any air cleaner that generates ozone or ions, because No federal agency has approved ozone generators for occupied spaces, and on a smoky Reno afternoon that adds one lung irritant to remove another.

No Ducts In Your Reno Rental Or Older Home? Start Here

Plenty of Reno housing runs on wall furnaces, baseboard heat, window units or ductless mini splits. No ducts means no filter slot, which makes every MERV recommendation here useless. EPA notes that window and wall units filter for the machine, not the room. Filterbuy would rather say so than sell you a filter that will not fit.

Your primary defense instead is a portable HEPA air cleaner, sized by CADR, the clean air delivery rate on the label. Aim for at least two-thirds of the room's floor area in square feet. A 12 by 14 foot bedroom is 168 square feet, so look for a smoke CADR near 115. Keep the windows shut, but do not seal yourself into a hot apartment without cooling.

Our Read On Reno's Numbers, From The People Who Build The Filters

Most air quality pages stop at the outdoor number. Filterbuy makes the filters that decide what happens after that air is indoors, so we went to Washoe County's records instead.

Two things stand out. Most cities argue about one dominant source, while Reno runs two pollution seasons six months apart. And the citywide figure rests on seven monitors in separate basins, which is why Lemmon Valley and the Truckee Meadows behave like different towns on the same night.

That is why we stock MERV 8, MERV 11, MERV 13 and carbon Odor Eliminator filters in 600 sizes. Buy in June, not on the afternoon the index turns orange.

Matching A Filter To The Reading On The Reno Map

This is the part Filterbuy makes. Shop MERV 8 air filters or MERV 11 air filters by the row that matches your reading.

Most furnaces and HVAC systems accommodate MERV 13 without equipment problems when the filter is replaced often, per EPA. Confirming the fit is a normal check, the same as confirming a size.

MERV 13 is not true HEPA, so during heavy smoke the right pairing is a portable HEPA unit running alongside whole-home filtration. Odor is separate. If smoke smell gets through, an activated carbon Odor Eliminator filter is where to look, since odor is gas rather than particles.

Supporting Statistics

1. Reno's smoke-day particulate is harder on asthma than its ordinary particulate.

• 188 smoke-affected days in Reno, 2013 to 2018.

• A 5 microgram per cubic meter rise in daily PM2.5 tracked 6.1 percent more asthma visits on smoke days than on clear days.

• Measured at Reno emergency departments and urgent care.

• Source: National Library of Medicine, Environmental Health

2. Washoe County has not banned residential burning in years.

• 15 Red Burn Code days in the 2013/14 season.

• A Red day is an enforced 24-hour burning ban.

• Zero Red days across the five seasons from 2018/19 through 2022/23.

• Source: Northern Nevada Public Health, Washoe County Air Quality Trends Report

3. Most Reno homes can run MERV 13 without trouble.

• EPA states most furnaces and HVAC systems accommodate MERV 13 without equipment problems, provided the filter is replaced often.

• During smoke, replace it when it looks dirty, dark brown or black, well before the manufacturer's normal interval.

• Keep spares on hand so a loaded filter comes out the day you notice.

• Source: EPA, Wildfire Smoke Factsheet: Indoor Air Filtration

Glossary

• AQI, Air Quality Index. The EPA's 0 to 500 scale, Good through Hazardous.

• PM2.5. Fine particulate 2.5 micrometers or smaller, and what usually sets Reno's AQI.

• Ozone. A lung irritant formed when sunlight hits vehicle and industrial emissions.

• NowCast. The EPA algorithm behind current AQI, averaging up to 12 prior hours.

• Inversion. Warm air sitting over cold air, capping the valley and trapping pollution.

• Truckee Meadows. The valley basin holding Reno and Sparks.

• Burn Code. The Green, Yellow, Red daily notice Northern Nevada Public Health posts November through February, stating whether wood burning is allowed, discouraged or banned.

• MERV. Minimum Efficiency Reporting Value, the 1 to 16 scale for particle capture.

• HEPA. High-Efficiency Particulate Air, capturing 99.97 percent of 0.3-micron particles.

• CADR. Clean Air Delivery Rate, used to size a portable air cleaner.