Air Quality in Tuscaloosa, Alabama — Live

Live readings from PurpleAir sensors across Tuscaloosa — with plain-English alerts when ozone builds or spring burn smoke rolls in.

Live Tuscaloosa AQI from nearby PurpleAir sensors loads when this page opens in a browser, along with a live sensor map covering Tuscaloosa and Northport, Cottondale, Moundville, Vance.

Tuscaloosa's air is good most of the year — this is the humid Deep South, not California wildfire country, and the city has no history of weeks-long smoke sieges. The two things that actually move the needle here are hot, still summer days that build ozone, and the cool-season prescribed burns that forestry crews set in the pine woods around the county every winter and spring, which can drift into town as haze and smoke for an afternoon at a time.

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.

Spring burn season, not wildfire smoke, is the real story

On March 4, 2026, the U.S. Forest Service was running a prescribed burn in neighboring Hale County at the same time the Alabama Forestry Commission was fighting an active wildfire there, and the combined smoke drifted into Tuscaloosa County thick enough that officials fielded, in the words of local coverage, plenty of calls and messages from residents and warned drivers to slow down on smoky roads. Forestry Commission fire analyst Ethan Barrett confirmed both fires were burning at once, which is why the smoke was heavier than a routine burn day.

That kind of afternoon is closer to normal than exceptional for West Alabama. Forestry crews run cool-season prescribed burns across the region into late April to clear out dry leaves and brush before wildfire season heats up — work regional forester Brad Lang has described as making any future fire in a treated stand far less devastating. Crews time each burn around wind and humidity, but on a still day the smoke can settle low over roads and neighborhoods for a few hours before it clears.

Summer means heat and humidity, and Tuscaloosa still meets the ozone standard

Ground-level ozone forms on hot, sunny, windless days, and Tuscaloosa gets plenty of those between April and September, with average summer highs near 100 degrees. Even so, EPA Green Book records do not list Tuscaloosa County among Alabama's ozone or particle-pollution nonattainment areas — unlike Jefferson, Shelby, and Walker counties around Birmingham, which carry a history of both. Tuscaloosa has stayed under the federal ozone limit even through its hottest summers.

That countywide grade is still just one number. Ozone and fine particles build unevenly across a city this size — worse near traffic corridors and river industry, milder in outlying neighborhoods — so the reading that matters is the one closest to where you actually are, not a single monitor across town.

The Black Warrior River industrial corridor is Tuscaloosa's other real source

Nucor Steel Tuscaloosa runs a steel plate mill along the river and is the county's dominant industrial emitter, outweighing the next four biggest reporters — Mercedes-Benz U.S. International, Phifer Inc., Hunt Refining, and BFGoodrich — combined, according to EPA Toxics Release Inventory data. The plant's most recent reporting year logged roughly 8.7 million pounds of releases across 17 chemicals, and Nucor has continued to expand the site, including a 2023 announcement of a $280 million new mill stand.

Downriver, Hunt Refining Company has its own enforcement history: a 2007 settlement with the EPA required more than $48.5 million in new pollution controls and a $400,000 penalty after Clean Air Act violations at its Tuscaloosa refinery, a fix expected to cut over 1,250 tons of harmful emissions a year. These are regulated point sources, not a constant citywide haze, but they are why Canairy reads sensors near the river corridor instead of relying on one downtown reading.

Tuscaloosa air quality FAQ

What is the air quality in Tuscaloosa right now?

This page shows the current AQI for Tuscaloosa, 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 Tuscaloosa get smoky in late winter and spring?

Forestry crews across West Alabama run prescribed burns from roughly December through late April to clear out brush and reduce wildfire risk, and smoke from those fires — or from an occasional wildfire burning alongside them, as happened in Hale County in March 2026 — can drift into Tuscaloosa and settle over roads for a few hours on a still day.

Does industry affect Tuscaloosa's air quality?

Tuscaloosa County is home to Nucor Steel's largest plate mill and Hunt Refining Company's oil refinery, both located along the Black Warrior River and both regulated under the Clean Air Act. Hunt Refining agreed to a multimillion-dollar pollution-control upgrade in 2007 after EPA violations. These are point sources the EPA and Alabama Department of Environmental Management track closely, rather than a constant citywide problem.

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 Tuscaloosa data come from?

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