SmokeDarMinneapolis wildfire smoke and air quality
Live readings for Minneapolis, Minnesota: 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 Minneapolis
Minneapolis is often the first major Midwest metro that Canadian smoke reaches, sometimes within a day of ignition in Manitoba or northwest Ontario. Because the plumes arrive fresher here, surface impacts can be sharper and faster than further downwind. That is why SmokeDar reports two numbers for Minneapolis: 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.
Minneapolis right now
–US AQI
Open the live radar for the current reading.
Open the live Minneapolis 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.