SmogRank / History / City race

Cities in United States, worst air first, day by day

Each measured city's average over the 30 days to every day since January 2023, worst first. Find your own city to follow it through the race, or keep to one country.

The 30 days to11 Oct 2025 That day's board

The worst cities in United States for PM2.5 over the 30 days to 11 Oct 2025: Wenatchee 37.6 µg/m³, Port Isabel 19.6 µg/m³ and Royal Oak 17.4 µg/m³.

  1. 1WenatcheeWashington37.6
  2. 2Port IsabelTexas19.6
  3. 3Royal OakMichigan17.4
  4. 4ToppenishWashington14.4
  5. 5HoustonTexas13.7
  6. 6SandpointIdaho13.7
  7. 7MankatoMinnesota13.3
  8. 8ColumbiaMissouri13.2
  9. 9YakimaWashington13.2
  10. 10ChanuteKansas13.1
  11. 11RiversideCalifornia13.0
  12. 12Elmwood ParkIllinois12.8
  13. 13PortsmouthOhio12.6
  14. 14WheelersburgOhio12.6
  15. 15BaytownTexas12.5
  16. 16HighlandsTexas12.5
  17. 17Moses LakeWashington12.5
  18. 18BakersfieldCalifornia12.4
  19. 19IndianapolisIndiana12.2
  20. 20TulareCalifornia12.1

+ 855 more cities, 12.0 µg/m³ and below

Not counted on this day, too few days measured: Mammoth Lakes since 7 Oct 2025, Conroe since 6 Oct 2025 and Meridian since 19 Sep 2025.

GoodModerateSensitive groupsUnhealthyVery unhealthyHazardousWHO 24-hour guideline, 15 µg/m³Fades where it stood: not counted that day

A city's number is its average over the 30 days, shown only when 21 of them were measured (5 of 7 on the 7-day race), the same minimum as the 30- and 7-day boards. A city whose monitors go quiet fades out where it stood rather than sliding down, so a gap never reads as cleaner air. Some large countries are thin or missing because their monitors' licences don't allow reuse. How we rank.

Not covered: the government monitoring networks of China and Turkey, which publish only on their own websites; we are building the readers for them. Most cities there are missing from this board, not clean. Why.