Air Quality in Des Moines, Iowa — Live
Live readings from PurpleAir sensors across Des Moines — with free alerts when the air changes, from summer haze to wildfire smoke drifting down from Canada.
Live Des Moines AQI from nearby PurpleAir sensors loads when this page opens in a browser, along with a live sensor map covering Des Moines and West Des Moines, Ankeny, Urbandale, Johnston.
Most of the year, Des Moines has some of the cleanest air of any decent-sized US metro. Flat central Iowa doesn't trap pollution the way a mountain valley does, and the American Lung Association's 2024 State of the Air report gave Polk County a straight A for ozone, with zero unhealthy ozone days over the three years measured. The exception is smoke that isn't local at all: Canadian wildfire smoke drifting hundreds of miles south has produced the worst air quality days in the city's recent record, and it has become a recurring spring-and-summer feature rather than a one-off.
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.
Des Moines' worst air day arrived from another country
On June 28, 2023, Des Moines recorded its worst air quality day in recent memory, as smoke from that year's record Canadian wildfire season pushed the AQI into the very unhealthy range and prompted local officials to urge residents to stay indoors. It wasn't an isolated spike — Iowa recorded more than 30 exceedances of national air quality standards in May 2023 alone, most tied to smoke pouring down from Quebec and Manitoba.
An Axios analysis of federal air-monitoring data published the following January found Des Moines residents breathed about 69% more fine particle pollution over the summer of 2023 than the 2014-2022 average, and the metro's average AQI for the year ran roughly 1.5 times higher than in 2022. The alerts haven't stopped since: the National Weather Service and Des Moines Register have continued flagging air quality alerts for the metro in the years after, including one issued July 19, 2026.
Flat farmland means no valley to trap pollution — but no shield from smoke either
Des Moines sits at the confluence of the Des Moines and Raccoon Rivers on the rolling, largely flat terrain of central Iowa, around 850 feet above sea level. There's no surrounding ridge line to box in car exhaust or industrial emissions the way a mountain valley does, and the region's day-to-day ozone numbers usually reflect that — the 2024 State of the Air report ranked the metro among the nation's cleanest for ozone pollution.
That same open geography is exactly why smoke from Canada travels so easily here. Without terrain to block or divert it, a plume that forms over Quebec or Manitoba can ride southerly winds straight across the Great Lakes and settle over central Iowa within a day or two, arriving well after the fire itself has stopped making headlines. It's a pattern Des Moines shares with much of the Upper Midwest, where regional ozone and particle levels both spiked to some of the highest readings on record during May and June 2023.
A farm-state backdrop with its own dusty days
Even outside smoke season, Polk County isn't spotless. The same 2024 State of the Air report gave it only a C grade for short-term particle pollution, ranking it 79th worst nationally for days when fine particles spike above healthy levels, and 142nd worst for year-round particle averages. Central Iowa's heavy row-crop agriculture — tillage, harvest dust, and grain handling around a metro that includes Johnston, headquarters of Pioneer Hi-Bred (now part of Corteva Agriscience) — adds to that backdrop in ways a single ozone grade doesn't capture.
None of this makes Des Moines a smoggy city day to day. But it does mean the read on any given afternoon depends on more than the season on the calendar — a still, hazy day in August can carry more fine particle pollution than a windy one in January, and the only way to know is to check the actual sensor reading rather than assume.
Des Moines air quality FAQ
What is the air quality in Des Moines right now?
This page shows the current AQI for Des Moines, calculated from PurpleAir sensors across the metro and updated continuously. The map below shows every live sensor, so you can check the reading closest to your own neighborhood.
Why did Des Moines have such bad air in 2023?
Smoke from that year's record Canadian wildfire season drifted hundreds of miles south into central Iowa, pushing the AQI into the very unhealthy range on the worst day, June 28, 2023, and driving fine particle pollution about 69% above the metro's 2014-2022 summer average. Iowa recorded more than 30 exceedances of national air quality standards in May 2023 alone.
Does Des Moines still get wildfire smoke alerts?
Yes. Canadian wildfire smoke has kept reaching central Iowa in the years since 2023, and the National Weather Service and local media have continued issuing air quality alerts for the Des Moines metro, including one on July 19, 2026. Canairy's live sensor readings are the fastest way to tell whether a hazy day is actually a high-AQI day.
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 Des Moines data come from?
Readings come from PurpleAir's network of laser particle sensors across Des Moines 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.