Spokane Real-Time AQI Tracker
Get Alerts For Unhealthy AQI In Your Area
When air quality in your area reaches unhealthy levels, we'll send you a quick alert, along with expert tips on how to reduce your exposure.
What's Actually In Spokane Air Today?
What High AQI Means for Your Lungs in Spokane
How to Read AQI
The Air Quality Index (AQI) measures how polluted the air is and how it may affect your health.
0–50 (Good): Air quality is satisfactory.
51–100 (Moderate): Acceptable, but some pollutants may pose minor concerns.
101–150 (Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups)
151–200 (Unhealthy)
201–300 (Very Unhealthy)
301+ (Hazardous)
Moderate
Still okay for most, but if you have asthma or allergies, take it easy and avoid long outdoor workouts.
Shop MERV 11 filters→What's the Right Filter for Your AQI Level?
Check Today's Live Real Time Air Quality Index AQI Map in Spokane, WA Now
TL;DR
The live map above shows current air quality in Spokane, WA, from Spokane Regional Clean Air Agency (Spokane Clean Air) and Washington Department of Ecology monitors. Most of the city's bad-air days come from fine particles rather than ozone: wildfire smoke in summer and fall, then wood smoke trapped under winter inversions. Once the map reaches 100, the point where Filterbuy tells customers to act, follow the four home steps below.
Key Takeaways
Fine particles (PM2.5), not ozone, drive most unhealthy days; the American Lung Association grades the metro an A for ozone and an F for short-term particles.
Spokane gets smoke twice a year: wildfire smoke in summer and fall, and wood smoke in winter.
Filterbuy order data shows filter orders spike within hours of a fire starting, so stock MERV 13 before fire season.
Reading the Live Spokane AQI Map in Under a Minute
The number on the map is a 0 to 500 Air Quality Index score for whichever pollutant measures highest. On clean summer days that is usually low-level ozone; during smoke or winter stagnation, PM2.5.
Spokane Clean Air reports the county's highest regulatory reading, so your block may be better or worse. Watch the station nearest you:
North Side: Monroe and Wellesley
Central Spokane: Augusta Avenue
East Central: Sprague and Haven
Spokane Valley: Buckeye and Vista, or the Spokane Valley air quality page
Liberty Lake: Ridgeline High School
West Plains: Airway Heights
What Each AQI Level Means for Your Day in Spokane
EPA's scale treats 101 as the start of unhealthy air for sensitive groups. Filterbuy acts one point earlier: at AQI 100, switch to MERV 13, set the fan to On, run a portable HEPA cleaner in each occupied room, and close up the house.
Spokane AQI Levels and What to Do
Categories follow the EPA AirNow scale. AQI 100 is Filterbuy's action line.
Filterbuy's Four Steps at AQI 100
Official guidance from AirNow and Spokane Clean Air, including any stay-indoors or evacuation order, comes first. Then:
Switch to a MERV 13 filter in the HVAC; it treats the whole house. EPA notes most furnaces and HVAC systems can take MERV 13 without equipment problems when the filter is replaced often. Check for a snug fit.
Set the thermostat fan to On. Auto only filters while the system heats or cools.
Run a portable HEPA cleaner in each occupied room, bedrooms first. EPA's sizing rule is a smoke CADR of at least two-thirds of the room's square footage, so a 300-square-foot bedroom needs roughly 200. EPA also advises against cleaners that produce ozone, so skip ionizers.
Close up the house: windows and doors shut, fresh-air intake closed, and no candles, frying, fireplace or smoking indoors.
Why the Spokane AQI Can Look Wrong or Lag Behind
Two clocks cause some of the confusion. AirNow's hourly particle readings use NowCast, which weights recent hours, while Spokane Clean Air averages particles midnight to midnight. When smoke moves fast, the two disagree.
A monitor also describes a neighborhood, not your street. On July 17, 2026, Liberty Lake read 351 while Airway Heights and Medical Lake read 147, according to The Spokesman-Review. And Spokane Clean Air notes that uncorrected PurpleAir units can read PM2.5 at roughly double, so use the LRAPA correction. When sources disagree, Filterbuy's rule is simple: act on the worse number.
Is Spokane's Air Safe to Breathe Right Now?
It depends on the live reading. AirNow guidance asks sensitive groups to limit prolonged or heavy outdoor exertion once the AQI passes 100, and everyone once it passes 150. EPA counts children, older adults, pregnant people, and people with heart or lung disease as higher risk from smoke, and anyone with a health condition should follow their doctor first. Locally, the City of Spokane suspends nonemergency outdoor work for its crews at AQI 300 or higher, the edge of the Hazardous range.
"The word 'Hazardous' doesn't mean a bad air day. It means the agencies that built this scale ran out of room to make exceptions for anyone."
Michelle Wan, Filterbuy Air Quality Writer, from Hazardous Air Quality (AQI 301+): What It Means and What to Do
Where to Find Spokane Air Quality Alerts and Burn Restrictions
Spokane Clean Air posts a daily forecast on its current air quality page. For fire locations, check the AirNow Fire and Smoke Map or the Spokane wildfire and smoke map; the Washington air quality map covers the state. For alerts, use the Filterbuy AQI sign-up on this page.
An Air Quality Alert covers smoke and calls for the four steps above. An Impaired Air Quality burn restriction covers winter wood smoke. Under Stage 1, fireplaces and uncertified wood stoves are off-limits in the Spokane County Smoke Control Zone unless wood is the home's only adequate heat with an approved exemption, and outdoor burning stops countywide. Stage 2 goes further.
Before lighting a fire, ask two questions: Is a burn restriction in effect, and is the map at 100 or higher? A yes to either means skipping it. On nights when burning is allowed, the Filterbuy fireplace-season indoor air guide explains how to burn cleaner.
What's Actually in Spokane's Air
PM2.5 comes mostly from regional wildfires in summer and fall and from home wood heating in winter, which Spokane Clean Air identifies as the county's largest single source of fine particle pollution. Coarser PM10 comes from roads and wind. Ecology monitors ozone from May through September, but ozone rarely pushes Spokane into unhealthy territory.
Wildfire Smoke: Spokane's Fastest-Moving Air Event
Wildfire smoke can push Spokane from Good to Hazardous within hours. On July 17, 2026, fires south of town, including the Lyons Ferry Fire, sent smoke across Spokane and Coeur d'Alene. Starting August 1, the Old Trails, Autumn Lane, and Fairview fires burned into neighborhoods on the city's northwest and northeast sides, destroying more than 900 homes and forcing about 65,000 residents to evacuate, The Spokesman-Review reported.
Filterbuy has shipped filters into the wildfire-prone West since 2013, and every fire season we watch people treat a lingering smoke smell as the problem. More often, it signals unfinished cleanup. The Filterbuy guide on how to clean indoor air after wildfire smoke covers the fix.
If the Fires Spared Your Home
Even a home that looks untouched can hold ash and firefighting chemicals, the Spokane Regional Health District warns. Its checklist for returning residents:
Install a new HVAC filter and run the fan constantly.
Clean ash with wet methods, never dry sweeping or a shop vacuum.
Wear a fitted N95 or P100 respirator while cleaning.
In older homes, do not sand or cut materials that may contain asbestos or lead.
For smoke residue, the tier on Filterbuy's ladder is MERV 13. Owners of burned structures also need an asbestos survey before debris removal.
What If Your Spokane Home Has No Central HVAC?
Homes heated by a wood stove, baseboards, a boiler, or a ductless heat pump have no filter slot to upgrade, so portable HEPA cleaners are the primary defense, one in each occupied room. If a certified unit is out of reach, EPA describes a do-it-yourself box-fan cleaner with MERV 13 filters. Use a certified fan made in 2012 or later and never leave it running unattended. It is a stopgap, not a replacement for a certified air cleaner.
Spokane Has Two Smoke Seasons, and Filtration Helps in Both
After more than a decade of making filters in the U.S., Filterbuy sees Spokane as unusual: nearly all of its unhealthy days are particle days, split across two seasons. HVAC filters miss ozone gas but capture particles, so filtration pays off here all year.
Our order data shows homeowners buy the right filter a few days late and rarely change the settings around it, a habit that costs more in summer. In winter, the furnace already pushes air through the filter for hours a day, but during summer smoke the fan can sit idle between cooling cycles on Auto.
"On a Hazardous air day, most people set one of the two settings that matter and stop there. ... Both have to move: intake closed, fan switched to On."
David Clark, Licensed HVAC Technician, Filterbuy HVAC Solutions, from Hazardous Air Quality (AQI 301+): What It Means and What to Do
Typical patterns, not forecasts. Check the live map for current conditions.
Which Filter the Spokane AQI Calls For
For everyday readings from 0 to 99, a MERV 8 filter handles dust and pollen, and MERV 11 steps up for pets and allergies. Between 51 and 99, get the upgrade in before smoke arrives. At 100 and above, or during smoke or a burn restriction, switch to Filterbuy MERV 13 air filters. EPA recommends MERV 13 or higher during smoke events.
Fit matters too. As a manufacturer, Filterbuy sees loose filters cause more smoke problems than low ratings, because smoky air slips around the edges. Order your exact size; Filterbuy stocks more than 600.
During a smoke event, check the filter often and replace it when it looks dirty, dark brown or black, which can be well before the normal interval. A spare on the shelf, or Filterbuy auto-delivery, keeps a fresh one ready.
Supporting Statistics
1. Wood heat is the top local source of fine particles.
About 1,146 tons of PM2.5 a year come from home wood heating.
Filterbuy's support queue sees fireplace complaints peak in January.
Source: Spokane Regional Clean Air Agency
2. Closing up the house is only half the job.
Doors and windows shut, no air cleaner: indoor PM2.5 averages 55% to 60% of outdoor levels.
Across homes, that ranges from 30% to 100%.
Source: U.S. EPA, Strategies to Reduce Exposure Indoors
3. Spokane is a particle city, not an ozone city.
Short-term particles: 31st worst in the U.S., an F.
Ozone: among the cleanest, an A.
Source: American Lung Association, State of the Air 2026
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the air quality in Spokane today?
The live map at the top of this page shows the current Spokane AQI and its main pollutant, updated through the day.
Is the air quality bad in Spokane today?
Check the map above. On the EPA scale, 101 or higher is unhealthy for sensitive groups, and 151 or higher for everyone. Filterbuy starts its four home steps at 100.
Why is Spokane smoke often worse in the early morning?
Overnight temperature inversions trap smoke near the ground until afternoon air mixes it out.
What MERV rating should I use for wildfire smoke in Spokane?
MERV 13. EPA recommends MERV 13 or higher during smoke events and notes most home systems take it when the filter is replaced often. Pair it with a portable HEPA cleaner in each occupied room.
How do I check Spokane PM2.5 right now?
Tap any station on the live map for its PM2.5 reading; Spokane Clean Air's site adds five-day trends.
Glossary
AQI: The EPA's 0 to 500 air quality scale with six health categories.
PM2.5: Fine particles up to 2.5 micrometers, the main component of smoke.
Temperature inversion: Warm air above cooler ground-level air that traps smoke near the surface.
MERV: Minimum Efficiency Reporting Value, a 1 to 16 rating of HVAC filter particle capture.
CADR: Clean air delivery rate, a portable cleaner's filtered airflow.