Air is a precious resource
With every breath we take, our lungs are exposed to the world around us, filtering over 11,000 liters of air each day. Breathing polluted air has health consequences across our lifespan. Evidence demonstrates acute and chronic health impacts for lungs, heart, brain, and other vital organs.
Thanks to decades of progress and technological advances, the Spokane region’s air quality meets health-based standards most days of the year. Still, there are a handful of days when our air quality fails health-based standards. This most often occurs in summer due to wildfire smoke.
Air Quality Index
How we monitor Spokane’s air
We measure various outdoor air pollutants at monitoring stations throughout Spokane County. Each site provides hourly and daily readings of pollutant concentrations.
Monitoring air quality and weather patterns enables us to:
- Forecast daily air quality conditions and significant events
- Report current air quality in our communities
- Issue burn bans on indoor wood heating and outdoor burning
- Help people use data to make clean air choices