Air Quality in Cheyenne, Wyoming — Live

Live readings from PurpleAir sensors across Cheyenne — with free alerts when the wind kicks up dust or wildfire smoke drifts in.

Live Cheyenne AQI from nearby PurpleAir sensors loads when this page opens in a browser, along with a live sensor map covering Cheyenne and Laramie, Pine Bluffs, Chugwater, Burns.

Cheyenne sits on the High Plains in one of the windiest spots in the country, and most days that works in the city's favor — a steady breeze keeps particle pollution from ever building up the way it does in a valley or a basin. The exceptions come from two directions: wind strong enough to whip dust off the surrounding prairie into a genuine dust storm, and wildfire smoke that rides in on that same wind from fires burning in the mountains west of Laramie, across the state line in Colorado, or as far away as Canada.

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.

Cheyenne is one of the windiest cities in America

Cheyenne's average wind speed runs from about 12 to nearly 15 miles an hour depending on the year, consistently placing it among the five or six windiest cities in the country. The wind comes from the city's position on the High Plains at just over 6,000 feet, in a natural corridor where air funnels between the Laramie Range to the west and open prairie to the east, with little to slow it down before it reaches the city.

That wind is usually good news for air quality — it keeps particle pollution from pooling the way it does in calmer, valley-bound cities. But when it turns extreme, it becomes the problem itself. On March 12, 2026, the National Weather Service issued a dust storm warning for Laramie and Albany counties as winds gusted to 60 mph and visibility dropped to near zero, part of a wider High Plains blowing-dust advisory with gusts topping 90 mph and, by some regional reports that week, as high as 109 mph — enough to blow over commercial trucks. Those are the days coarse dust (PM10) spikes in the air, even on a day with no smoke in sight.

Wildfire smoke still finds Cheyenne, even when the fires don't

Cheyenne has no forests of its own, but it sits downwind of country that burns. In September and October 2020, the Mullen Fire tore through more than 176,000 acres of the Medicine Bow National Forest about 28 miles west of Laramie, while Colorado's Cameron Peak Fire burned on the other side of the state line at the same time. Together they buried the region in smoke thick enough that local coverage described Cheyenne and Laramie as looking less like the Wyoming towns everyone knew and more like a movie set, with residents advised to stay indoors.

It doesn't take a fire that close. On September 4, 2025, the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality and the Wyoming Department of Health issued an air quality alert covering the entire state, Cheyenne included, for smoke drifting down from wildfires burning in Canada, hundreds of miles north. The alert flagged both ozone and particulate matter and warned kids, older adults, and anyone with a respiratory condition to scale back strenuous outdoor activity until it cleared.

What to actually do when the wind or the smoke turns

The two hazards call for different responses. A high-wind dust event usually clears within a day as the front moves through, so the simplest move is to stay inside and keep windows shut until the gusts die down. Wildfire smoke is slower — once it settles over the city it can sit for days, and it's the fine particles, not the visible haze, that do the damage, so it's worth knowing your number before your throat tells you something is wrong.

That's the gap Canairy is built to close. Instead of waiting for a statewide advisory or a smoky smell to check the sky, you get a plain answer for your own neighborhood, pulled from real sensors near the places you actually saved rather than one reading for the whole state.

Cheyenne air quality FAQ

What is the air quality in Cheyenne right now?

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

Why is Cheyenne so windy, and is that good or bad for air quality?

Cheyenne sits on the High Plains in a natural wind corridor next to the Laramie Range, and its average wind speed of roughly 12 to 15 mph puts it among the windiest cities in the country. Most days that wind is a good thing - it keeps particle pollution from settling the way it does in calmer, valley-bound cities. But extreme wind events can whip up blowing dust across the surrounding prairie, sometimes triggering dust storm warnings and spiking coarse particulate matter (PM10).

Does wildfire smoke reach Cheyenne?

Yes, even when nothing is burning nearby. The 2020 Mullen Fire west of Laramie and Colorado's Cameron Peak Fire filled the region with smoke for weeks, and in September 2025 Wyoming issued a statewide air quality alert, Cheyenne included, over smoke drifting in from wildfires burning in Canada.

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.

Where does Canairy's Cheyenne data come from?

Readings come from PurpleAir's network of laser particle sensors across Cheyenne and surrounding Laramie County communities, 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.

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