# Saint Paul wildfire smoke and air quality

Live readings for Saint Paul, Minnesota from SmokeDar (https://smokedar.com/saint-paul): 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 Saint Paul

Saint Paul shares the Twin Cities' front-row seat for Canadian smoke, which typically drops in on northwest flow from Manitoba and Ontario fires. Fresh plumes mean conditions can go from clear to Unhealthy in hours, and the river valley can hold haze after the wind turns.

That is why SmokeDar reports two numbers for Saint Paul:

- **Smoke aloft**: modeled aerosol optical depth from Copernicus CAMS. This explains the color of the sky.
- **Surface air**: PM2.5 and US AQI, using observed AirNow monitor data when a monitor is nearby. This is what reaches your lungs.

They are different things, and they often disagree. An orange sky can sit over clean surface air,
and hazy-looking days can measure fine.

## Is the air in Saint Paul safe to breathe today?

Use the US AQI number, not the sky's color:

- **0-50 (Good) and 51-100 (Moderate)**: ordinary days for most people.
- **101-150 (Unhealthy for sensitive groups)**: kids, older adults, pregnant people, and anyone with heart or lung conditions should shorten hard outdoor exercise.
- **151+ (Unhealthy and above)**: everyone should cut both time and intensity outdoors.

The current live reading is on https://smokedar.com/saint-paul and the full playbook is at
https://smokedar.com/smoke-guide.html.

## About SmokeDar

SmokeDar is a free wildfire smoke and air quality radar covering 21 cities across the eight
Midwest states (Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Missouri).
Built by Ryan Thompson in Milwaukee. It is not a health barometer; readings are modeled or
monitor-observed as labeled. More: https://smokedar.com/llms.txt