Air Quality in Visalia, California — Live

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

Live Visalia AQI from nearby PurpleAir sensors loads when this page opens in a browser, along with a live sensor map covering Visalia and Tulare, Exeter, Farmersville, Hanford.

Visalia's air problem is not mainly a smoke problem, and it is not mainly a winter problem. It is ozone. In the American Lung Association's 2026 State of the Air, using 2022 to 2024 data, the Visalia metro ranked second worst in the entire country for high-ozone days, behind only Los Angeles, with a weighted average of 92.7 unhealthy ozone days a year. Ozone is invisible and has no smell, which is why a bad air day here can look like a perfectly clear afternoon. The particle side is genuinely improving — the same report recorded Visalia's best year-round particle numbers yet — but the ozone ranking has not moved.

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 worst air often arrives on a clear summer afternoon

This is the part that surprises people. The Valley is designated extreme nonattainment for the federal 8-hour ozone standard — the most severe classification the Clean Air Act has — and Visalia sits near the top of the national list. In the 2026 State of the Air it ranked second in the country for ozone with 92.7 high-ozone days a year, while Fresno, its northern neighbor, ranked fifth with 54.5. Ozone builds through hot sunny afternoons and is not something you will smell or see, so it is worth checking rather than guessing.

On particulate matter Visalia ranked fifth worst nationally for both short-term spikes and year-round levels — but those were its best figures on record. The two pollutants run on different clocks here: ozone peaks in summer heat, fine particles peak in winter stagnation and during fire season.

The fires that matter here are up the 198

State Route 198 runs through Visalia as a freeway, then climbs east past Exeter into the Sierra, ending near the Sequoia National Park boundary at Lake Kaweah. That upper country has burned repeatedly and hard. The SQF Complex burned 174,178 acres in Tulare County in 2020 and killed an estimated 7,500 to 10,600 large giant sequoias. In 2021 the KNP Complex began as two lightning fires on September 9, merged, burned 88,307 acres inside Sequoia National Park, and was not contained until mid-December when atmospheric rivers arrived. The Windy Fire burned 97,528 acres in the same county that autumn, including 1,723 acres of giant sequoia groves.

When those are burning, the Valley Air District issues alerts covering Fresno, Kings, Tulare and Kern counties, and particulate readings on the Valley floor have run in the hazardous range for much of a day — that happened in September 2021 with the KNP Complex and Windy Fire burning at once.

Dairies, orchards, and what changed in 2025

Tulare County produces more milk than any other county in the United States — over 10.5 billion pounds in 2024, from roughly 335 dairies. Dairies are a major ammonia source, and ammonia combines with nitrogen oxides from combustion to form ammonium nitrate, commonly the largest single contributor to Valley PM2.5 in winter. The regulatory response has focused on engines rather than herds for a specific reason: modeling for the Valley found that halving nitrogen oxides cut nitrate by 30 to 50 percent, while halving ammonia changed it by less than 5 percent.

Field burning has changed too. As of January 1, 2025 a near-total ban on agricultural open burning took effect across the Valley. The District may now issue permits only for prunings and orchard removals from apple, pear and quince, plus rice straw capped at 20 percent of a grower's annual acreage. Small orchard removals, vineyard removals and surface-harvested prunings can no longer be burned at all. On the residential side, Check Before You Burn runs November 1 through the end of February under Rule 4901, declared county by county.

Visalia air quality FAQ

Why is there smoke in Visalia today?

The most common source is a wildfire in the Sierra east of town — Sequoia National Park and the Sequoia National Forest, up the 198 — with smoke settling onto the Valley floor. The Air District has issued smoke alerts covering Tulare County during fires like the KNP Complex and the Windy Fire in 2021. In winter, residential wood smoke on a stagnant night is the more likely culprit. What it is much less likely to be, since January 2025, is a farm field: agricultural open burning is now nearly entirely prohibited in the Valley.

What is the air quality in Visalia right now?

This page shows the current AQI for Visalia, 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.

The sky looks clear — why is the AQI high?

Probably ozone. It is invisible and odorless, it forms in sunlight, and it peaks on hot clear afternoons rather than smoky ones. Visalia ranked second worst in the nation for high-ozone days in the American Lung Association's 2026 report, and the Valley is classified extreme nonattainment for the federal 8-hour ozone standard. A clear sky here is not evidence of clean air.

Is farm burning still making the air bad in Visalia?

Much less than it used to. As of January 1, 2025 the Valley Air District may only permit open burning of apple, pear and quince prunings and orchard removals, plus rice straw limited to 20 percent of a grower's annual acreage. Small orchard removals, vineyard removals and surface-harvested prunings are now prohibited. Growers have been shifting to whole-orchard recycling, chipping the wood back into the soil.

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.