SmokeDarKansas City wildfire smoke and air quality
Live readings for Kansas City, Missouri: whether wildfire smoke is overhead, what the surface air measures, and how the next five days look. Free, no signup, no ads.
How smoke reaches Kansas City
Kansas City, at the region's southwestern edge, sees as much smoke from Western US and Plains fires as from Canada. Plumes arrive well-traveled and high, and it usually takes a stalled summer high to push readings into Unhealthy territory. That is why SmokeDar reports two numbers for Kansas City: smoke aloft (modeled aerosol optical depth from Copernicus CAMS) and surface air (PM2.5 and US AQI, observed AirNow monitor data when a monitor is nearby). They are different things, and they often disagree.
Kansas City right now
–US AQI
Open the live radar for the current reading.
Open the live Kansas City radarWhat the numbers mean
AQI 0–50 is good and 51–100 is moderate; ordinary days. From 101–150, sensitive groups (kids, older adults, pregnant people, anyone with heart or lung conditions) should shorten hard outdoor exercise. Above 150, everyone should cut both time and intensity outdoors. The full playbook is in the Smoke Guide.