Air Quality in Mobile, Alabama — Live

Live readings from PurpleAir sensors across Mobile — with free alerts when ozone climbs on a hot, still Gulf Coast afternoon.

Live Mobile AQI from nearby PurpleAir sensors loads when this page opens in a browser, along with a live sensor map covering Mobile and Prichard, Saraland, Daphne, Spanish Fort.

Mobile's air, taken as a whole, is genuinely clean by national standards — the American Lung Association's 2026 State of the Air report gave the Mobile-Daphne-Fairhope metro area a passing grade for short-term particle pollution for the 15th year running. The real story here is ground-level ozone, which builds on hot, sunny, windless summer afternoons from roughly May through September — and a city where that citywide grade hides a lot: a few miles north of downtown, the historic community of Africatown sits inside a roughly 60-mile industrial corridor and has recorded some of the worst air-toxics exposure in the state.

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.

Ozone, not smoke, is Mobile's recurring problem

Mobile's ozone grade slipped from an A to a B in the American Lung Association's most recent State of the Air report, even as the metro kept its long streak — 15 consecutive years — among the nation's cleanest for daily particle pollution. Ozone forms when sunlight cooks vehicle exhaust, port equipment, and industrial emissions together, and in a humid Gulf Coast city that reaction runs hottest on still, sunny afternoons between roughly 2 and 7 p.m., May through September.

Being on Mobile Bay complicates the picture rather than simplifying it. Researchers flying instrumented aircraft over the coast near Dauphin Island for a NASA-affiliated field study found that the afternoon Gulf breeze dilutes ozone and fine particles quickly right at the shoreline, then lets pollution concentrations climb again a few miles inland where that breeze doesn't reach. A reading from one side of the city can look nothing like a reading from the other on the same afternoon, which is exactly why a single citywide number is the wrong thing to check.

Africatown carries a heavier load than the rest of the city

Three miles north of downtown, the community founded in 1866 by survivors of the Clotilda — the last known ship to bring enslaved Africans into the United States — sits inside what local industry itself calls the Alabama Gulf Coast Chemical Corridor, a roughly 60-mile stretch of refineries, chemical plants, and rail lines. Of Mobile County's several dozen pollution-producing industries, about 30 operate within three miles of Africatown, and International Paper ran a mill on the community's doorstep from 1928 until it closed in 2000.

Residents have described airborne debris from the plant settling so thick that, in one resident's words, you couldn't see three feet in front of you, and roughly 1,200 of them sued International Paper in 2018 over dioxins, furans, and other contamination left behind after the mill closed. A 2022 environmental screening put Africatown's exposure to airborne respiratory hazards in the 95th to 100th percentile statewide — a genuinely different air-quality reality than the passing grade the wider metro earns, and the reason a single Mobile-wide reading can miss what people a few miles apart are actually breathing.

What actually helps on a high-ozone afternoon

Ozone in Mobile tracks the heat, so the practical move is timing: get outdoor workouts, yard work, and kids' recess done in the morning rather than the mid-afternoon window when ozone runs highest. On the muggiest stretches, the bigger everyday nuisance indoors is often moisture — mold and dust that never fully clear in a humid Gulf Coast house — a separate problem from the outdoor ozone number, but one that tends to show up on the same sticky, still days.

Canairy reads the PurpleAir sensors scattered across greater Mobile rather than one airport monitor, so the number you see reflects the neighborhood you actually saved — Africatown, the Port, Midtown, or wherever else you check on your way out the door.

Mobile air quality FAQ

What is the air quality in Mobile right now?

This page shows the current AQI for Mobile, 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 — useful in a city where an industrial area like Africatown can read very differently from Midtown or the Bay side on the same afternoon.

Why does Mobile's ozone get worse in summer?

Ground-level ozone forms when sunlight reacts with emissions from vehicles, the Port of Mobile, and the region's chemical and refining industry, and that reaction runs fastest on hot, still, sunny days. The American Lung Association's most recent State of the Air report gave the Mobile metro a B for ozone — a step down from its previous A — with the worst readings typically falling between 2 and 7 p.m. from May through September.

Why is the air different in Africatown than the rest of Mobile?

Africatown sits inside the Alabama Gulf Coast Chemical Corridor, a roughly 60-mile stretch of refineries, chemical plants, and rail lines, with about 30 pollution-producing facilities within three miles of the community. A 2022 environmental screening put its exposure to airborne toxics in the 95th to 100th percentile statewide, which is why Canairy reads sensors near Africatown itself rather than relying on a single citywide average.

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 Mobile data come from?

Readings come from PurpleAir's network of laser particle sensors across Mobile 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.