SmogRank / United Kingdom / England / Manchester
Manchester, month by month
Manchester has a measured daily mean on 1,060 days since 1 January 2023. Its worst month was July 2026, at 65 US AQI (16.7 µg/m³), 435th of 2,784 cities on that month's world ranking. Its cleanest was September 2026, at 17 US AQI (3.1 µg/m³). 2025 averaged 44 US AQI (8.0 µg/m³), against 48 US AQI (8.6 µg/m³) in 2024.
Every month since 2023
The US EPA's Air Quality Index for PM2.5 (2024 breakpoints). Show values as: µg/m³ · US AQI · India AQI · China AQI · European AQI · UK DAQI · Canada AQHI+. About the scales
Months without a mean, and why
12 months
| Month | Why |
|---|---|
| Mar 2025 | 2 of 31 days measured; a month needs 22. The others: 29 with under 18 hours of readings or readings that failed our checks. |
| Feb 2025 | No day measured. The others: 28 with under 18 hours of readings or readings that failed our checks. |
| Jan 2025 | No day measured. The others: 31 with under 18 hours of readings or readings that failed our checks. |
| Dec 2024 | No day measured. The others: 31 with under 18 hours of readings or readings that failed our checks. |
| Nov 2024 | No day measured. The others: 30 with under 18 hours of readings or readings that failed our checks. |
| Apr 2024 | 19 of 30 days measured; a month needs 21. The others: 11 with under 18 hours of readings or readings that failed our checks. |
| Oct 2023 | 16 of 31 days measured; a month needs 22. The others: 15 with under 18 hours of readings or readings that failed our checks. |
| Jul 2023 | 19 of 31 days measured; a month needs 22. The others: 1 missing from OpenAQ's archive, 11 with under 18 hours of readings or readings that failed our checks. |
| Jun 2023 | 18 of 30 days measured; a month needs 21. The others: 12 with under 18 hours of readings or readings that failed our checks. |
| May 2023 | 18 of 31 days measured; a month needs 22. The others: 13 with under 18 hours of readings or readings that failed our checks. |
| Mar 2023 | 11 of 31 days measured; a month needs 22. The others: 20 missing from OpenAQ's archive. |
| Feb 2023 | 3 of 28 days measured; a month needs 20. The others: 25 missing from OpenAQ's archive. |
A day counts once 18 hours of it are measured; a month needs 70% of its days.
Manchester's worst months
| Month | US AQI | World rank | Episode |
|---|---|---|---|
| July 2026 | 6516.7 µg/m³ | 435thof 2,784 | – |
| March 2026 | 5813.0 µg/m³ | 1,064thof 2,971 | Europe, 18 to 25 March 2026 Europe, 1 to 12 March 2026 |
| April 2025 | 5511.3 µg/m³ | 870thof 2,951 | – |
| April 2023 | 5410.9 µg/m³ | 327thof 1,622 | – |
| May 2024 | 5410.8 µg/m³ | 624thof 2,684 | – |
| November 2023 | 5310.2 µg/m³ | 580thof 2,243 | – |
Monthly means over the days measured; finished months only. World rank: its place on that month's world ranking of every city with enough days. Each month opens that ranking.
Manchester's worst days
| Day | US AQI | Episode |
|---|---|---|
| 13 Jul 2026 | 18198.9 µg/m³ | – |
| 15 Jul 2026 | 15560.8 µg/m³ | – |
| 14 Jul 2026 | 14954.8 µg/m³ | – |
| 22 Mar 2026 | 13549.3 µg/m³ | Europe, 18 to 25 March 2026 |
| 12 Jul 2026 | 12645.6 µg/m³ | – |
| 17 Jul 2026 | 11240.0 µg/m³ | – |
| 21 Mar 2026 | 10938.9 µg/m³ | Europe, 18 to 25 March 2026 |
| 15 Feb 2023 | 9633.3 µg/m³ | Europe, 6 to 25 February 2023 |
| 14 Feb 2023 | 9331.4 µg/m³ | Europe, 6 to 25 February 2023 |
| 9 Sept 2023 | 8929.3 µg/m³ | United Kingdom, Belgium and 2 more countries, September 2023 |
Daily means, the highest since 1 Jan 2023; the WHO's daily guideline is 15 µg/m³. Each date opens that day's world ranking, and each episode the bad-air spell it was part of.
Use this history
SmogRank, PM2.5 monthly and daily means, Manchester, United Kingdom, 1 Jan 2023 – 12 Oct 2026. Monitor data from UK-AIR (Defra), read from the publisher; sources listed at smogrank.com/sources. smogrank.com/gb/manchester/history (accessed 13 Oct 2026).
You're welcome to reuse a single chart, image or figure with this citation and a link. Terms. Raw monitor readings in bulk are published by OpenAQ, under each provider's licence.
Manchester now: the last 24 hours, its ranks today and the last 12 months day by day.
Updated 2026-10-13 03:07 UTC. Values are PM2.5 (fine particles), the median of each city's monitors, as the US AQI PM2.5 sub-index. Some low-cost readings: Sensor.Community, ODbL (data and licence). Some readings: Uzhydromet (Uzbekistan's Hydrometeorological Service); Department of Environment, Nepal; Vietnam's government monitors; Aurassure; Umhverfisstofnun (Environment Agency of Iceland); RMCAB (Secretaría Distrital de Ambiente, Bogotá); Love My Air (City and County of Denver), no reuse terms published (why we use them).