Air Quality in Bloomington, Minnesota — Live

Live readings from PurpleAir sensors across Bloomington — with free alerts when Canadian wildfire smoke or summer haze rolls in.

Live Bloomington AQI from nearby PurpleAir sensors loads when this page opens in a browser, along with a live sensor map covering Bloomington and Richfield, Edina, Eden Prairie, Eagan.

Most of the year, the air in Bloomington is genuinely good. This stretch of the Minnesota River valley doesn't have the terrain to trap pollution the way a mountain valley does, and Twin Cities wind usually clears out whatever the metro produces on its own. The exception arrives from far away: when wildfires burn across Ontario, Quebec, or the Canadian prairies, that smoke drifts south and settles over the metro for days at a time, most memorably during the record-breaking summer of 2023.

Canairy watches the sensors around your home, your kids' school, and everywhere else you care about, and tells you in plain English when the air changes enough to matter.

Bloomington's terrain doesn't trap air — Canada's wildfires still reach it

Bloomington sits on the north bank of the Minnesota River, just above where it meets the Mississippi, with a sand plain in the northeast and low hills across the rest of the city. None of that terrain boxes in air the way a mountain valley does — there's no ridge here holding smoke or haze in place overnight. Most days, prevailing winds off the open prairie move air through the metro rather than letting it settle.

That's exactly why the exceptions are so noticeable: when the air does turn bad, it's almost always smoke that traveled hundreds of miles to get here, not something produced locally. The Twin Cities have no wildfire risk of their own to speak of — the source is Canada's boreal forest, and a bad fire season there is what actually shows up on Bloomington's sensors.

2023 was the year Canadian smoke rewrote Minnesota's record book

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency typically issues two or three air quality alerts a year. In 2023, after an unusually dry spring left Quebec and Ontario's forests primed to burn, the agency issued 23 — breaking the previous record of 21 set two years earlier, in 2021. On June 14, 2023, Minneapolis's air quality index hit 256, deep in the Unhealthy range, among the worst readings the metro had ever recorded.

Two weeks later, on June 27, MPCA declared its 23rd alert of the year, covering southern Minnesota, Bloomington included, along with the east-central and northeastern parts of the state, as smoke from fires in Ontario and Quebec rolled back in and visibly dimmed the Minneapolis-St. Paul skyline. The pattern hasn't gone away: MPCA issued similar alerts covering parts of the state again in July 2026, the kind of summer that's becoming the new normal for the Upper Midwest.

Summer also brings a quieter risk: ground-level ozone

Wildfire smoke isn't Bloomington's only summer air problem. On hot, humid, sunny afternoons, MPCA issues separate ozone alerts for the seven-county Twin Cities metro when heat, humidity, and vehicle exhaust combine to form ground-level ozone — a different pollutant from wildfire smoke, made locally rather than imported. Bloomington sits right at the interchange of I-494, I-35W, and Highway 77, one of the busiest stretches of freeway in the state, exactly the kind of traffic corridor that feeds an ozone alert.

These ozone alerts typically run from around noon to 9 p.m., peaking in mid-to-late afternoon rather than at rush hour, which makes them easy to miss if you're only checking the air in the morning. Anyone with asthma, or anyone planning an outdoor workout on a still, hot July day, is better off checking before noon than after the fact.

Bloomington air quality FAQ

What is the air quality in Bloomington right now?

This page shows the current AQI for Bloomington, calculated from PurpleAir sensors across the city and updated continuously. The map below shows every live sensor, so you can check the reading closest to your own neighborhood.

Why did Minnesota set a record for air quality alerts in 2023?

Wildfire smoke drifting down from Ontario and Quebec pushed the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency to issue 23 separate air quality alerts in 2023, breaking the previous record of 21 set in 2021 — in a typical year the state issues only two or three. On June 14, 2023, Minneapolis's air quality index hit 256, and by late June smoke had settled over Bloomington and the rest of southern Minnesota again, visibly dimming the Twin Cities skyline.

Does ground-level ozone affect Bloomington in summer?

Yes. On hot, humid, sunny days the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency issues separate ozone alerts for the seven-county Twin Cities metro, usually in effect from around noon to 9 p.m. Bloomington's location at the junction of I-494, I-35W, and Highway 77 puts it right in one of the state's busiest traffic corridors, which is part of what feeds ozone formation on those days.

What AQI level is unhealthy?

Under the US EPA scale, AQI 0-50 is Good and 51-100 is Moderate. From 101 the air is Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups - kids, older adults, and people with asthma or heart conditions - and above 150 it's Unhealthy for everyone. Canairy translates these numbers into a plain-English verdict, like whether to close the windows or move a workout indoors.

Where does Canairy's Bloomington data come from?

Readings come from PurpleAir's network of laser particle sensors across Bloomington and surrounding towns, cross-referenced with government monitors and the Google Air Quality API. You can see every sensor behind your numbers on the live map - there's no black box.

Is Canairy free?

Yes. The Canairy app is free to download and includes live air quality for all your saved places, plain-English verdicts, and free push alerts when the air crosses your threshold. A paid plan adds extras like SMS text alerts.

Get Canairy free on Google Play.