Air Quality in Oxnard, California — Live

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

Live Oxnard AQI from nearby PurpleAir sensors loads when this page opens in a browser, along with a live sensor map covering Oxnard and Ventura, Port Hueneme, Camarillo, Santa Paula.

Oxnard sits on the coast at the western edge of the Oxnard Plain, about sixty miles up the shoreline from Los Angeles, and for most of the year the city's air is not the county's problem. Ventura County as a whole still fails state and federal ozone standards, but on the air district's daily forecast the ozone trouble usually shows up inland around Simi Valley and Moorpark rather than on the coastal plain. What Oxnard has instead are two narrower problems. South Oxnard and Port Hueneme rank in the worst five percent of California communities for diesel exposure. And when a Santa Ana wind event turns a brush fire in the hills into a countywide event, the coast stops being an advantage.

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 Thomas Fire is still the benchmark here

The Thomas Fire started on December 4, 2017 and was not fully contained until January 12, 2018. It burned 281,893 acres and destroyed 1,063 structures, and at the time it was the largest wildfire in modern California history. By the morning of December 6, with the fire at 65,000 acres and zero containment, the county fire department had issued a hazardous air quality warning covering Ventura, Oxnard and Camarillo as shifting winds pushed the smoke back over the coastal plain.

Ash was falling like snow from Ventura up to Santa Barbara. By December 8 the Sheriff's Department was telling people to wear N95 masks outdoors, and school districts across the area closed for the rest of that week. That warning is the fact worth knowing — we have not found a published hour-by-hour reading for an Oxnard monitor from that week, so we will not put a number on it.

South Oxnard's air is not the same as the rest of the city

CalEnviroScreen puts South Oxnard and Port Hueneme in the top five percent of California communities for diesel exposure. That is a truck-and-port problem rather than a wildfire problem, and it runs all year. The county air district installed an EPA reference-grade monitoring station at Haycox Elementary School in South Oxnard in 2019, and later added black carbon monitors at the school, the Port of Hueneme entrance gate, the high school district and in La Colonia.

A community advisory committee of South Oxnard and Port Hueneme residents chose two of those sites themselves. If you live south of Channel Islands Boulevard, your air is genuinely different from the air in RiverPark — which is the practical reason to watch a sensor where you actually are rather than a citywide figure.

Santa Ana wind days are the ones to watch

In November 2024 the National Weather Service issued a particularly dangerous situation red flag warning — the first of its kind in the Los Angeles area since 2020 — with gusts over 65 mph. The Mountain Fire started that morning near Balcom Canyon Road in Somis, ran across State Route 118 into Camarillo Heights, and burned 19,904 acres before it was contained on November 27. It destroyed 243 structures and took out roughly 12,000 acres of farmland.

That fire started about fifteen miles from downtown Oxnard, which is close enough that wind direction, not distance, decides what you end up breathing.

Oxnard air quality FAQ

Why is there smoke in Oxnard today?

Usually one of three things. A brush fire somewhere in Ventura County being pushed toward the coast by Santa Ana winds — that is what happened during the Thomas Fire in December 2017 and the Mountain Fire in November 2024. An approved agricultural burn: the county air district issues separate burn or no-burn decisions for the coastal plain region covering Ventura, Oxnard and Camarillo. Or smoke drifting in from a fire well outside the county. Checking the wind direction usually tells you which.

What is the air quality in Oxnard right now?

This page shows the current AQI for Oxnard, 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.

Does being on the coast keep Oxnard's air clean?

Partly, and not reliably. The coastal plain generally sees less of the county's ozone than the inland valleys do. But Ventura County still does not meet state or federal ozone standards, South Oxnard carries a heavy diesel burden regardless of the weather, and an offshore wind event can put the entire county's smoke directly over the city. The ocean helps on ordinary days and does nothing on the bad ones.

Is the air in La Colonia and South Oxnard different from the rest of the city?

Yes, and the air district treats it that way. South Oxnard and Port Hueneme are in the top five percent statewide for diesel exposure, which is why the black carbon monitoring network was built there rather than citywide, with residents on the advisory committee picking two of the four sites. A city-average reading will understate what a household near the port or the truck routes is breathing.

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.