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Yellowknife air right now

Moderate riskAQHI 4

Yellowknife’s five-day smoke forecast shows the current index and the clearest time ahead.

4
AQHI now
8.6
PM2.5 · µg/m³
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The better move within a 3-hour drive

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Yellowknife Clean · PM2.5 0–5 Good · 5–9 Elevated · 9–15 Polluted · 15–35 Unhealthy · 35–55 Severe · 55+
Top pick
Behchokǫ̀
Cel-shaded illustration of Behchokǫ̀
AQI 152
#1Behchokǫ̀Checking road route

Northwest Territories· Unhealthy

Tłı̨chǫ community on Great Slave Lake's north arm west of Yellowknife, a separate air reading across the lake country.

Worse air than home. Don't bother.

PM2.5 is 57.6 µg/m³ here vs 8.6 back home.Berkeley Earth: 22 µg/m³ for 24 h ≈ 1 cigarette.A week at these levels: 57.6/22 × 7 = 18 here; 8.6/22 × 7 = 2.7 at home.A long-term health-risk equivalence, not literal smoking.See how we work it out →

Air is currently worse here than in Yellowknife

570% worse airChecking trip easeChecking nearby staysChecking today's weather

Observed Aug 23, 6:27 p.m. EDT

PM2.5 is estimated for this town. No AQHI station is close enough.

Directions
Bad week ahead? Check the 7-day outlook — if it won’t clear, book the trip

7-day outlook

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AQHI 4: Moderate risk (Yellowknife)Observed Aug 23, 6:12 p.m. EDTLast scan Aug 23, 6:27 p.m. EDT · 49 min ago

Why live rankings? Smoke plumes are patchy and shift with the wind, so no direction is reliably cleaner. This list is recalculated from live PM2.5 every hour — and if everything nearby is smoky, it says so.

How we work this out →

Browse all 200 cities by province & state →

Air quality in nearby cities →
Fort McMurray air qualityEdmonton air qualityPrince George air qualityWhitehorse air qualitySaskatoon air qualityCalgary air qualityKamloops air qualityMedicine Hat air qualityLethbridge air qualityKelowna air qualityRegina air qualityChilliwack air quality

What this means · Yellowknife

Moderate risk

AQHI 4

AQHI = Air Quality Health Index

Typical person. Keep your usual outdoor plans unless you get symptoms like coughing or throat irritation.

Kids, seniors, heart or lung conditions. If you have heart or lung disease, kids, or seniors in the mix: ease off hard outdoor effort when symptoms show up.

Particles here are 8.6 µg/m³ (Good) — ozone or NO₂ is likely what's pushing risk up.

Act two · Fine particles only

Where PM2.5 lands

This bar is smoke and fine particles (PM2.5) only — not the full AQHI mix. Left is cleaner air; right is heavier particle pollution. Today's particles sit in Good.

8.6 µg/m³
Clean · 0Smoky · 40Severe · 80+

Act three · Particle ladder

What each PM2.5 rung feels like

  • 0–3µg/m³Natural. About as clean as outdoor air realistically gets.
  • 3–5µg/m³Clean. Crisp, destination-worthy air.
  • 5–9µg/m³Good. Clean city air; most people will not notice anything today.
  • 9–15µg/m³Elevated. Usually no big deal today; sensitive lungs may notice hard exercise.
  • 15–35µg/m³Polluted. Smoke or traffic pollution is now worth acting on.
  • 35–55µg/m³Unhealthy. Symptoms become more likely, especially with asthma or heart disease.
  • 55+µg/m³Severe. Everyone should reduce exposure and clean the indoor air.

Act four · Felt number

Cigarettes a week

A secondary feel for the particle load only — not a medical claim, and not a substitute for AQHI.

2.7/wk

What is PM2.5?

Fine particles about 30× thinner than a human hair — small enough to slip through your lungs and into your bloodstream. We measure them inµg/m³: micrograms of particle mass in a cubic metre of air.

The math

PM2.5 here is 8.6 µg/m³.Berkeley Earth: 22 µg/m³ for 24 h ≈ 1 cigarette.A week at this level: 8.6/22 × 7 = 2.7 cigarettes.A long-term health-risk equivalence, not literal smoking.See how we work it out →
See the full method →