Air quality
Air quality in Chelyabinsk today
Updated
Moderate (US AQI 55) Acceptable for most people. Unusually sensitive people should consider shortening long or heavy exertion outdoors. Model estimate for Mon, Oct 26, 5:00 am (00:00 UTC).
Live AQI, PM2.5, PM10 and ozone for Chelyabinsk, Russia, with a 48-hour forecast and the best time to be outside.
- US AQI now
- 55 Moderate
- PM2.5
- 8.1 µg/m³ 0.5× WHO 24-h guideline
- PM10
- 8.2 µg/m³
- Ozone
- 28 µg/m³
- Dominant pollutant
- PM2.5 sub-index 55
- Best hour today
- 9:00 pm AQI 37
- European AQI
- 26
Air quality in Chelyabinsk right now
Right now the modelled US Air Quality Index for Chelyabinsk, Russia is 55, which falls in the "Moderate" band (up to 100). Acceptable for most people. Unusually sensitive people should consider shortening long or heavy exertion outdoors.
The index is driven mainly by PM2.5, whose own sub-index is 55. Fine and coarse particles come from traffic, heating, industry, dust and smoke; they build up on calm nights and clear when wind or rain arrives.
PM2.5 is 8.1 µg/m³, within the WHO 24-hour guideline of 15 µg/m³; PM10 is 8.2 µg/m³ against a guideline of 45; ozone is 28 µg/m³ (below the WHO 8-hour level of 100); nitrogen dioxide is 6.1 µg/m³ (below the 24-hour guideline of 25).
Also this hour: carbon monoxide 135 µg/m³.
NASA FIRMS shows 245 fire hotspots within 300 km in the last day (nearest about 11 km), but particle levels are not elevated enough to point to smoke right now.
Chelyabinsk AQI forecast: next 48 hours
Over the next 24 hours the AQI is forecast to range from 27 around Tue 5:00 am to 55 around Mon 5:00 am, from "Good" at best to "Moderate" at worst.
The following day is expected to be cleaner, averaging about 37 against 43 for the next 24 hours.
| Local time (Asia/Yekaterinburg) | US AQI | Category | PM2.5 µg/m³ | PM10 µg/m³ | Ozone µg/m³ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mon 5:00 am | 55 | Moderate | 8.1 | 8 | 28 |
| Mon 8:00 am | 54 | Moderate | 8.1 | 8 | 25 |
| Mon 11:00 am | 52 | Moderate | 5.4 | 6 | 36 |
| Mon 2:00 pm | 48 | Good | 2.1 | 2 | 55 |
| Mon 5:00 pm | 43 | Good | 3.5 | 4 | 44 |
| Mon 8:00 pm | 38 | Good | 4.4 | 5 | 35 |
| Mon 11:00 pm | 34 | Good | 3.8 | 4 | 34 |
| Tue 2:00 am | 30 | Good | 4.5 | 5 | 33 |
| Tue 5:00 am | 27 | Good | 6 | 6 | 34 |
| Tue 8:00 am | 26 | Good | 9.4 | 10 | 35 |
| Tue 11:00 am | 28 | Good | 10.4 | 11 | 45 |
| Tue 2:00 pm | 32 | Good | 10.2 | 11 | 63 |
| Tue 5:00 pm | 38 | Good | 10.4 | 11 | 56 |
| Tue 8:00 pm | 42 | Good | 10.4 | 11 | 50 |
| Tue 11:00 pm | 47 | Good | 9.7 | 10 | 50 |
| Wed 2:00 am | 50 | Good | 9.4 | 10 | 51 |
| Wed 5:00 am | 51 | Moderate | 9.4 | 9 | 51 |
Every third hour of the CAMS forecast via Open-Meteo. US AQI uses rolling averages (24 h for particles, 8 h for ozone), so it moves more slowly than the hourly concentrations.
Best time to be outside in Chelyabinsk today
Between 6 am and 9 pm local time, the cleanest air today is forecast around 9:00 pm (AQI 37, Good) and the worst around 6:00 am (AQI 55). That is a swing of 18 points, so a run or walk around 9:00 pm is noticeably better.
Chelyabinsk vs the rest of Russia
Across 76 Russia cities we track, the average US AQI right now is 46 (Good). Chelyabinsk at 55 is 9 points worse than average.
It ranks 52 of 76 from cleanest to most polluted; the cleanest is Penza (19) and the most polluted Ufa (92).
For context, the median across 3,909 cities worldwide is 57.
Air quality in cities near Chelyabinsk
| City | Distance | US AQI | Category | PM2.5 µg/m³ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yekaterinburg | 195 km | 61 | Moderate | 8.5 |
| Kurgan | 250 km | 29 | Good | 9.7 |
| Magnitogorsk | 251 km | 58 | Moderate | 12.9 |
| Nizhny Tagil | 320 km | 56 | Moderate | 8.1 |
| Tyumen | 337 km | 23 | Good | 5.5 |
| Ufa | 352 km | 92 | Moderate | 37.3 |
Model vs measured
The nearest measured PM2.5 reading is 2.8 µg/m³ from Sensor.Community (median of 3 sensors), centred about 14 km from the city centre. That is 5.3 µg/m³ below the model estimate of 8.1 µg/m³. Low-cost sensors can read high in humid air; reference monitors are more accurate but sparser.
Advice for sensitive groups
At 55, most people are fine outdoors. If you are unusually sensitive to PM2.5, keep long or intense workouts to the cleaner hours shown above.
What the US AQI numbers mean
| US AQI | Category | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| 0-50 | Good | Air quality is satisfactory and poses little or no risk; a good time for outdoor activity. |
| 51-100 | Moderate | Acceptable for most people. Unusually sensitive people should consider shortening long or heavy exertion outdoors. |
| 101-150 | Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups | People with heart or lung disease, older adults, children and teens should cut back on prolonged or heavy exertion outdoors. |
| 151-200 | Unhealthy | Everyone should reduce prolonged or heavy exertion outdoors; sensitive groups should avoid it and keep windows closed. |
| 201-300 | Very Unhealthy | Health alert: everyone should avoid prolonged or heavy exertion outdoors, and sensitive groups should stay indoors. |
| 301-500 | Hazardous | Emergency conditions: everyone should avoid all outdoor physical activity and stay indoors with filtered air if possible. The scale tops out at 500; heavier dust or smoke is shown as 500. |
Values on this page are modelled by CAMS (Copernicus) and served by Open-Meteo; they are estimates for the area around the city centre, not readings from an official monitor.
Nearby cities
More for Chelyabinsk
Air quality elsewhere
Data: Open-Meteo Air Quality API, Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS), Sensor.Community, NASA FIRMS.