Air Quality in Shreveport, Louisiana — Live

Live readings from PurpleAir sensors across Shreveport — with free alerts when the air changes enough to matter.

Live Shreveport AQI from nearby PurpleAir sensors loads when this page opens in a browser, along with a live sensor map covering Shreveport and Bossier City, Blanchard, Benton, Haughton.

Shreveport sits in the Red River valley in northwest Louisiana, and most days its air is comfortably in the Good range — the same humid subtropical climate that brings frequent rain tends to wash pollutants out of the sky. The exception shows up two ways: on hot, still summer afternoons, when heat and humidity let ozone and fine particles build up into Moderate territory, and on the rarer occasions when trouble flares at the oil refinery that sits inside the city itself, just across Interstate 20 from the Louisiana State Fairgrounds.

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 refinery inside the city has a long history of trouble

Calumet's Shreveport refinery has been a fixture near downtown since the early 20th century, sitting across I-20 from the Louisiana State Fairgrounds — practically in the middle of town. On the morning of October 30, 2008, a sour-water tank at the refinery, holding a mix of water, ammonia, and hydrogen sulfide, exploded and caught fire. The tank collapsed and spilled into a containment moat, where the material burned itself out by late morning, but not before smoke had spread across much of the city. The refinery itself was evacuated; the surrounding neighborhoods were not, and no one was hurt.

That wasn't an isolated event. EPA on-scene coordinators have been dispatched to the same facility more than once since, including a separate incident involving another sour-water tank that brought in the agency's START air-monitoring team to confirm the plume wasn't a threat beyond the fence line. It's why Shreveport's air story isn't really about wildfire smoke the way it is out West — it's about knowing when an industrial release, not a distant fire, is the thing worth watching for.

Hot, still summer days are when the numbers actually move

Louisiana's Department of Environmental Quality runs the Shreveport-area monitor at the Downtown Airport, tracking ozone, fine particles (PM2.5), and sulfur dioxide around the clock. Caddo Parish isn't one of the ozone nonattainment areas the EPA tracks the way Baton Rouge has been — Shreveport doesn't run afoul of the federal ozone standard — but that doesn't mean the numbers never move. On a muggy, sun-baked afternoon with little wind, the same stagnant air that makes a Shreveport summer feel unbearable also lets both ozone and fine particles build up instead of dispersing, occasionally nudging the AQI into the Moderate range.

That's a real, current pattern, not a hypothetical: on a typical summer afternoon the Downtown Airport monitor can log ozone comfortably in the Good range while PM2.5 quietly climbs into Moderate territory at the same time. It's rarely dramatic enough to make the news, but it's exactly the kind of day a sensitive-group reading matters — someone with asthma running errands at 3 p.m. is breathing measurably different air than the same person at 8 a.m.

Bossier City shares the air, and the river doesn't separate it

Shreveport and Bossier City face each other across the Red River, close enough that a plume from one side reaches the other in minutes, not hours. Whatever affects the west bank — refinery flaring, traffic backed up on I-20 or I-49, a still summer afternoon — shows up in Bossier City's air too, and vice versa. That's why a single official monitor at the Downtown Airport can only tell you about one point in a metro area that spans two parishes and reaches towns like Blanchard, Benton, and Haughton.

Canairy reads the denser network of PurpleAir sensors spread across both banks instead of relying on that one government station, so the reading you see reflects the neighborhood you actually saved, not just downtown. On the handful of days a year when the refinery or the heat pushes the numbers up, that's the difference between a citywide guess and a real answer for your street.

Shreveport air quality FAQ

What is the air quality in Shreveport right now?

This page shows the current AQI for Shreveport, 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 the Calumet refinery affect Shreveport's air quality?

It has, on occasion. The refinery sits inside the city, across I-20 from the Louisiana State Fairgrounds, and has a history of tank fires and releases — including a sour-water-tank explosion on October 30, 2008 that sent smoke across much of the city, and later incidents that brought EPA air-monitoring teams back to the site. These events are infrequent, but when one happens, a nearby PurpleAir sensor will show it well before any official alert goes out.

Why does Shreveport's air get worse on hot, muggy summer days?

Shreveport's humid subtropical climate means calm, sun-baked afternoons are common in summer, and that stagnant air lets both ozone and fine particles build up instead of clearing out. Caddo Parish doesn't carry an EPA ozone nonattainment designation, but the local monitor at the Downtown Airport regularly logs Moderate PM2.5 on days like these, even when nothing unusual is burning.

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 Shreveport data come from?

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