Air Quality in Syracuse, New York — Live
Live readings from PurpleAir sensors across Syracuse — with free alerts when wildfire smoke or highway pollution spikes.
Live Syracuse AQI from nearby PurpleAir sensors loads when this page opens in a browser, along with a live sensor map covering Syracuse and DeWitt, Liverpool, Fayetteville, East Syracuse.
Syracuse doesn't carry a wildfire or smog reputation the way West Coast cities do, and most days the air here is genuinely fine. But it isn't immune: in June 2023, smoke from more than 160 wildfires burning across Quebec drifted south on a stalled weather pattern and pushed the city's own reported air quality index past 390 — hazardous by any measure, and enough for the state to tell schools to cancel recess and athletics for days. The rest of Syracuse's air story is quieter and doesn't show up in a single bad week: the elevated I-81 viaduct has carried roughly 100,000 vehicles a day directly over the Near West Side and 15th Ward for six decades, leaving those neighborhoods with a heavier, more constant dose of traffic exhaust than the rest of the city.
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.
June 2023: when Quebec's wildfires turned Syracuse's sky orange
On June 7, 2023, the City of Syracuse's own air quality advisory put the index at 391 as of noon — deep into the hazardous range — with some regional readings reaching 402 that same morning. The smoke came from more than 160 wildfires burning across Quebec, carried roughly 400 to 500 miles south by a weather system that stalled near Maine and funneled the plume down into Central New York for days. Governor Kathy Hochul urged school districts statewide to move recess and athletics indoors, and Onondaga County districts along with the City of Syracuse's own Parks and Recreation department suspended outdoor programming until the smoke cleared.
It was the most extreme air-quality event in the city's recent memory, and it wasn't a local failure — Syracuse doesn't sit near major fire country, and the plume that hit it started hundreds of miles away in another country. What it exposed is how fast conditions here can flip: with no wildfire season of its own to build habits around, the region had little practice reading an AQI number before that week. That's exactly why a live, plain-English reading matters here — the next Canadian smoke event won't announce itself any further in advance than the last one did.
The I-81 viaduct put six decades of traffic exhaust over one neighborhood
Interstate 81's elevated viaduct was built through the heart of Syracuse's 15th Ward between 1959 and 1969, cutting through what had been the city's main Black neighborhood and displacing roughly 1,300 residents in the process. What was left behind carries about 100,000 vehicles a day on a 1.4-mile stretch, directly over homes on the Near West Side and South Side — and the pollution didn't stay on the highway. Public health research has tied the corridor to elevated rates of asthma and lead exposure among residents living closest to it, an air-quality burden layered on top of the neighborhood's original displacement.
New York State is now tearing the viaduct down. The $2.25 billion Community Grid project — the largest single road project the state has ever undertaken — began demolition work in 2023 and moved into its second construction phase in 2025, with the elevated structure slated to close for good by the end of 2026 before the corridor is rebuilt as a street-level boulevard. For anyone living or working near the old viaduct route, the construction years themselves bring their own diesel equipment and dust, on top of whatever the finished grid eventually changes about traffic patterns nearby.
Syracuse air quality FAQ
What is the air quality in Syracuse right now?
This page shows the current AQI for Syracuse, 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 did Syracuse's air quality turn hazardous in June 2023?
Smoke from more than 160 wildfires burning across Quebec drifted roughly 400 to 500 miles south on a stalled weather system, pushing Syracuse's own reported AQI to 391 by midday on June 7, 2023. Governor Hochul urged schools statewide to cancel outdoor activities, and Syracuse's Parks and Recreation department suspended outdoor programming until the smoke cleared. It was an imported event, not a local fire — but it showed how fast conditions here can change when the wind turns the wrong way.
Does the I-81 construction affect air quality near the old viaduct?
The elevated highway that cut through Syracuse's 15th Ward carried around 100,000 vehicles a day for decades, and the neighborhoods nearest it have documented higher rates of asthma tied to that traffic exhaust. New York's Community Grid project is now demolishing the viaduct in phases through 2026, which trades one problem — decades of highway exhaust overhead — for another in the near term: construction dust and diesel equipment, before the corridor becomes an at-grade boulevard.
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 Syracuse data come from?
Readings come from PurpleAir's network of laser particle sensors across Syracuse and surrounding Onondaga County 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.
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