Air Quality in Calgary, Alberta — Live

Live readings from PurpleAir sensors across Calgary — with free alerts the moment the air turns.

Live Calgary AQI from nearby PurpleAir sensors loads when this page opens in a browser, along with a live sensor map covering Calgary and Airdrie, Chestermere, Cochrane, Okotoks.

Calgary's air is usually excellent and occasionally among the worst on the continent, with not much in between. Both extremes come out of the same geography: a windy city on the prairie at the foot of the Rockies, well placed to flush itself out most days, and sitting downwind of every fire burning in British Columbia, northern Alberta, Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories once summer arrives. Environment and Climate Change Canada counted 499 hours of smoke over Calgary between 1 May and 5 September 2023 — a record in observations that go back to 1953. Winter brings a quieter problem that has nothing to do with fire at all.

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.

The smokiest summers on record are the recent ones

Environment and Climate Change Canada counts a smoke hour when visibility falls to 9.7 kilometres or less in smoke, measured at stations with round-the-clock human observation. By 5 September 2023, Calgary had logged 499 of them since the start of May, breaking the previous record of 450 set in 2018. Records go back to 1953, so this is not a short baseline. Edmonton's 266 hours broke its own record the same summer. Two of the smokiest years ever recorded here have happened within the last decade.

It has not eased off. In late July 2026, smoke pushed Calgary's AQHI to 10+ — the very high risk top of the scale — and Environment Canada issued orange air quality warnings for central and western Alberta, the level that signals significant, widespread health impacts that may last several days. On IQAir's global tracker Calgary sat around AQI 191 that week, and Calgary along with mountain towns like Banff and Canmore rated worse than any major city on earth at that hour. The agency's own caution is the practical one to remember: air quality and visibility due to wildfire smoke can change rapidly over short distances and from hour to hour.

Winter inversions, and the chinook that clears them

Calgary's clean-air reputation is largely built on wind. Chinooks are the local version — Pacific air that has dropped its moisture climbing the western slope of the Rockies and then warms as it descends the eastern side, arriving over southern Alberta repeatedly through the winter. They can move the temperature startlingly fast. At Pincher Creek, south of the city, a chinook raised the temperature 25.5 C in a single hour on 6 January 1966.

The trouble is what happens between them, and sometimes just ahead of one. When cold air pools at ground level under a layer of warmer air aloft, that warm layer works like a lid: normal vertical mixing stops, and whatever is being emitted at street level stays at street level. Environment and Climate Change Canada issued a special air quality statement for Calgary and Rocky View County on the evening of 7 January 2022 for exactly this reason, warning of coughing, throat irritation, headaches and shortness of breath and telling people to reschedule or scale back strenuous outdoor activity. If Calgary's air is bad in January, this is almost always why — not a fire, just a lid.

What gets measured here, and what the city can shut down

The Calgary Region Airshed Zone runs continuous monitoring stations around the city and reports the results, measuring fine particulate matter, ozone, nitrogen dioxide, volatile organic compounds and sulphur dioxide. The City itself does not publish a local index; it points residents to Environment Canada for the current AQHI. That leaves a real gap between a handful of regulatory stations and the block you actually live on, which is the gap a dense network of neighbourhood sensors fills.

The one local source the city can act on directly is backyard burning. Fire pits fall under Calgary's Community Standards Bylaw, and during poor air quality and wildfire events the City can issue fire pit bans specifically to keep more smoke out of an already loaded airshed. Complaints go through 3-1-1. It is a small lever against a continental smoke plume, but on a still evening in your own neighbourhood it is not nothing.

Calgary air quality FAQ

Why is there smoke in Calgary today?

In summer it is wildfire smoke, and the fire is usually nowhere near you — plumes reach Calgary from British Columbia, northern Alberta, Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories. It is a routine part of the season now: Environment Canada counted 499 smoke hours over Calgary between May and early September 2023, breaking the 450-hour record set in 2018 in observations going back to 1953. In late July 2026 the AQHI hit 10+ here under orange air quality warnings for central and western Alberta. Environment Canada's standing warning applies: smoke and visibility can change rapidly over short distances and from one hour to the next, which is why a sensor near your house beats a city-wide forecast.

What is the air quality in Calgary right now?

This page shows the current AQI for Calgary, calculated from PurpleAir sensors across the city and updated continuously. Calgary covers a lot of ground and readings can differ between the northwest, the deep south and the river valley, so the map below shows every live sensor rather than one averaged number.

Canada reports the AQHI — why does this page show a different number?

Environment Canada reports air quality as the Air Quality Health Index, a 1-to-10+ scale of short-term health risk, and that is what you will see on Alberta's own maps. This page does not show the AQHI. It shows the US EPA Air Quality Index, the 0-to-500 scale used by PurpleAir and most air-quality apps, so a Calgary reading is directly comparable with any other city here. The reason is practical: the AQHI is calculated from three pollutants together — ground-level ozone, nitrogen dioxide and fine particulate matter — and PurpleAir sensors measure only the fine particles. During a smoke event, when particles are the whole problem, the two scales track each other closely. On a hot afternoon with high ozone the AQHI can read worse than a particle-only number, so check the Alberta AQHI alongside this page if ozone matters to you.

Why does the air get bad in winter when nothing is burning?

Temperature inversions. Normally air cools as it rises and carries pollution up with it. In an inversion, a layer of warmer air sits on top of the cold air near the ground and acts like a lid, so vertical mixing stops and everything emitted at street level stays there. Environment and Climate Change Canada issued a special air quality statement for Calgary and Rocky View County on 7 January 2022 for precisely this, warning about coughing, throat irritation, headaches and shortness of breath. Chinook winds usually break the pattern, but the still, cold days before one arrives are the days to watch.

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.

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.