Air quality

Air quality in St. Thomas today

Updated

Good (US AQI 38) Air quality is satisfactory and poses little or no risk; a good time for outdoor activity. Model estimate for Sun, Oct 25, 10:00 pm (02:00 UTC).

Live AQI, PM2.5, PM10 and ozone for St. Thomas, Ontario, Canada, with a 48-hour forecast and the best time to be outside.

US AQI now
38 Good
PM2.5
11 µg/m³ 0.8× WHO 24-h guideline
PM10
11 µg/m³
Ozone
73 µg/m³
Dominant pollutant
ozone sub-index 38
Best hour tomorrow
6:00 am AQI 44
European AQI
33

Open on the live map

Air quality in St. Thomas right now

Right now the modelled US Air Quality Index for St. Thomas, Ontario, Canada is 38, which falls in the "Good" band (up to 50). Air quality is satisfactory and poses little or no risk; a good time for outdoor activity.

The index is driven mainly by ozone, whose own sub-index is 38. Ozone usually peaks in the afternoon on sunny days and falls back after sunset.

PM2.5 is 11 µg/m³, within the WHO 24-hour guideline of 15 µg/m³; PM10 is 11 µg/m³ against a guideline of 45; ozone is 73 µg/m³ (below the WHO 8-hour level of 100); nitrogen dioxide is 11 µg/m³ (below the 24-hour guideline of 25).

Also this hour: carbon monoxide 222 µg/m³.

NASA FIRMS shows 96 fire hotspots within 300 km in the last day (nearest about 13 km), but particle levels are not elevated enough to point to smoke right now.

St. Thomas AQI forecast: next 48 hours

Over the next 24 hours the AQI is forecast to range from 36 around Mon 12:00 am to 58 around Mon 2:00 pm, from "Good" at best to "Moderate" at worst.

The following day is expected to be cleaner, averaging about 35 against 49 for the next 24 hours.

Local time (America/Toronto)US AQICategoryPM2.5 µg/m³PM10 µg/m³Ozone µg/m³
Sun 10:00 pm38Good11.41173
Mon 1:00 am36Good11.11178
Mon 4:00 am40Good131371
Mon 7:00 am47Good18.41849
Mon 10:00 am53Moderate24.42443
Mon 1:00 pm57Moderate11.21168
Mon 4:00 pm58Moderate3.9478
Mon 7:00 pm57Moderate1.7264
Mon 10:00 pm55Moderate1.6254
Tue 1:00 am53Moderate1.8248
Tue 4:00 am50Good1.8243
Tue 7:00 am42Good1.9237
Tue 10:00 am29Good2.6338
Tue 1:00 pm18Good1.6252
Tue 4:00 pm21Good1.5259
Tue 7:00 pm25Good2.6348
Tue 10:00 pm24Good2.9341

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 St. Thomas tomorrow

Between 6 am and 9 pm local time, the cleanest air tomorrow is forecast around 6:00 am (AQI 44, Good) and the worst around 2:00 pm (AQI 58). That is a swing of 14 points, so a run or walk around 6:00 am is noticeably better.

St. Thomas vs the rest of Canada

Across 75 Canada cities we track, the average US AQI right now is 44 (Good). St. Thomas at 38 is 6 points cleaner than average.

It ranks 30 of 75 from cleanest to most polluted; the cleanest is Surrey (26) and the most polluted Windsor (78).

For context, the median across 3,556 cities worldwide is 58.

Air quality in cities near St. Thomas

CityDistanceUS AQICategoryPM2.5 µg/m³
London, ON24 km41Good11.1
Brantford84 km48Good12.9
Kitchener91 km51Moderate13.1
Waterloo94 km51Moderate13.1
Cambridge, ON96 km48Good12.9
Sarnia102 km55Moderate14.2
Port Huron104 km55Moderate14.2
Erie115 km42Good12.5

Model vs measured

We found no measured PM2.5 sensor cell within 25 km of St. Thomas, so the numbers on this page are model estimates. Models capture regional pollution well but can miss very local sources such as a busy road or a nearby fire.

Advice for sensitive groups

With the AQI at 38, there is no need for sensitive groups to change plans. People with asthma should still carry their reliever inhaler as usual.

What the US AQI numbers mean

US AQICategoryWhat it means
0-50GoodAir quality is satisfactory and poses little or no risk; a good time for outdoor activity.
51-100ModerateAcceptable for most people. Unusually sensitive people should consider shortening long or heavy exertion outdoors.
101-150Unhealthy for Sensitive GroupsPeople with heart or lung disease, older adults, children and teens should cut back on prolonged or heavy exertion outdoors.
151-200UnhealthyEveryone should reduce prolonged or heavy exertion outdoors; sensitive groups should avoid it and keep windows closed.
201-300Very UnhealthyHealth alert: everyone should avoid prolonged or heavy exertion outdoors, and sensitive groups should stay indoors.
301-500HazardousEmergency 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 St. Thomas

Air quality elsewhere

Data: Open-Meteo Air Quality API, Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS), NASA FIRMS.