Air Quality in Huntington, West Virginia — Live
Live readings from PurpleAir sensors across Huntington — with plain-English alerts when fine particle pollution spikes, not just when ozone does.
Live Huntington AQI from nearby PurpleAir sensors loads when this page opens in a browser, along with a live sensor map covering Huntington and Barboursville, Milton, Ceredo, Kenova.
Huntington's air quality report card looks almost backwards from what people expect: ozone here is about as clean as it gets — the Charleston-Huntington-Ashland metro area earned an A grade with zero unhealthy ozone days in the American Lung Association's 2026 State of the Air report. The real issue is fine particle pollution, which pulled a D grade for short-term spikes in that same report, in a river valley lined with heavy industry from Special Metals' foundry to the Marathon refinery just across the Kentucky line in Catlettsburg.
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.
Huntington's ozone air is some of the cleanest in the country
Huntington sits at the confluence of the Ohio and Guyandotte rivers, on a flood plain about 564 feet above sea level with hills rising close by to the south and southeast. It's the kind of setting that could easily cook up summer smog, but it doesn't: the Charleston-Huntington-Ashland, WV-OH-KY metro area earned an A grade for ozone and recorded zero unhealthy ozone days in the American Lung Association's 2026 State of the Air report — the same clean result as the year before.
That's a genuinely good outcome, and it means most days in Huntington really are fine for a run along the Ohio River levee or a ride out to Ritter Park. Ground-level ozone forms in strong summer sun and heat, and this stretch of the Ohio Valley simply doesn't build it up the way flatter, hotter, more car-choked metros do.
The real problem is fine particles, not smog
The number that should get more attention is particle pollution, not ozone. The same 2026 State of the Air report gave the Charleston-Huntington-Ashland metro a D grade for short-term, 24-hour particle spikes — 2.3 unhealthy days a year on average, a figure unchanged from the year before and bad enough to rank 82nd worst among US metro areas. The year-round average grade passed, but the metro still ranked 114th worst nationally on that measure too.
American Lung Association advocacy director Elizabeth Hensil put it plainly in the report: too many people in the Charleston-Huntington-Ashland metro area are living with unhealthy levels of particle pollution. Fine particles behave differently than ozone — they build up on cold, still days rather than hot ones, and a river valley with hills close on two sides gives them fewer places to go before someone breathes them in.
Two riverbanks of heavy industry, plus a refinery next door
Part of the answer is what lines the riverbanks. Heavy industrial plants sit along both the Ohio and the Guyandotte rivers in Huntington, including Special Metals Corporation's high-nickel alloy plant along with steel fabrication and welding operations, and CSX still moves coal out of the southern coalfields through the city by rail and barge via the Port of Huntington.
Just across the state line, Marathon Petroleum's Catlettsburg refinery — one of the larger refineries in Marathon's network, processing upward of 277,000 barrels of crude a day — sits about two miles off the Ohio River near Ashland, Kentucky, close enough that local TV stations have reported flaring incidents there sending visible smoke plumes over the tri-state area. It isn't in West Virginia, but the air doesn't check state lines any more than smoke does.
Huntington air quality FAQ
What is the air quality in Huntington right now?
This page shows the current AQI for Huntington, 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 does Huntington get a failing grade for particle pollution if the air usually looks fine?
The American Lung Association's 2026 State of the Air report gave the Charleston-Huntington-Ashland metro area a D grade for short-term particle pollution - 2.3 unhealthy days a year - even though the same report gave the region an A for ozone with zero unhealthy days. Fine particles spike on specific days, often when the air is cold and still, rather than building up steadily, which is why the sky can look clear while the AQI is quietly climbing.
Does the Marathon refinery in Catlettsburg affect Huntington's air?
Marathon Petroleum's Catlettsburg refinery sits just across the Ohio River near Ashland, Kentucky, and is one of the larger refineries in its network. Local TV stations have reported flaring incidents there that sent visible smoke over the tri-state area, and prevailing winds can carry that plume toward Huntington. Canairy's sensor map lets you check whether a given day's readings are actually elevated rather than guessing from what you can see out the window.
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 Huntington data come from?
Readings come from PurpleAir's network of laser particle sensors across Huntington 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.