DailyAQIहिं
Rourkela309Very Poor

Rourkela · Live air quality

309
AQI · India scale
Very Poor

You're looking at Rourkela's air right now — AQI 309, very poor, driven by PM2.5.

Raghunathpali, Rourkela - OSPCB · 3 stations · updated

Cities › Rourkela

Rourkela Air Quality Index (AQI) Today

Live air quality in Rourkela, — real-time AQI, dominant pollutant, PM2.5 & PM10 levels and a plain-English health advisory, computed from CPCB data.

#136 most polluted of 297 live citiesDominant pollutant: PM2.5
Is it safe to go out in Rourkela today?

No — Rourkela's AQI is 309 (Very Poor). Avoid outdoor activity, keep windows closed, run a purifier and wear an N95 mask outdoors.

Breathing today's air is roughly like 6 cigarettes a dayA rough PM2.5 equivalence (Berkeley Earth: ~22 µg/m³ ≈ one cigarette) — a rule of thumb, not medical advice.
▲ 1 higher than yesterday

Where 309 sits on the India CPCB scale

309
0GoodModeratePoorSevere500

Rourkela air quality forecast

22°C · wind 6 km/h

Light winds (6 km/h) and calm air are letting pollution build up near the ground.

Today204Poorlow 79
Tomorrow178Moderatelow 74
Sun226Poorlow 72
00:0006:0012:0018:00

Hourly AQI forecast for the next 24 hours (CPCB scale).

Cleanest air today is forecast around 20:00 (AQI 147) — a good window for outdoor time.

Forecast modelled by Open-Meteo and converted to the CPCB scale. Forecasts are estimates and can change — our live readings above are measured.

What you can do outside right now

Outdoor exercise
Avoid — train indoors
Windows
Keep them closed
Mask outdoors
Wear an N95
Kids’ outdoor play
Keep them indoors
Air purifier
Run it now
Commute
Mask + windows up

General guidance by AQI band. Sensitive groups should act one level earlier.

Live pollutant levels

PM2.5130 µg/m³
Very Poor · index 309
PM10121 µg/m³
Moderate · index 115
NO₂22 µg/m³
Good · index 28
O₃16 µg/m³
Good · index 16
SO₂12 µg/m³
Good · index 15
NH₃8 µg/m³
Good · index 2

Each pollutant's 24-hour concentration is converted to a CPCB sub-index; the city AQI is the highest of them (the dominant pollutant). Bars show the sub-index out of 500.

What this air does to your body

5.9
cigarettes/day equivalent
Breathing today's PM2.5 (130 µg/m³) is roughly like smoking 5.9 cigarettes a day — Berkeley Earth's rule of thumb (22 µg/m³ ≈ 1 cigarette).
−12.3 yr
life-expectancy impact
If this level held all year, it would cut average life expectancy by about 12.3 years versus the WHO guideline (5 µg/m³), per the AQLI method.

Illustrative equivalences from published research (Berkeley Earth; Air Quality Life Index, University of Chicago). Not a medical assessment of your personal risk.

Where the air is cleanest and worst in Rourkela right now

A live comparison of Rourkela's monitoring areas — the cleaner areas are the better choice for outdoor time right now, while the worst are best avoided for exercise. Each figure is a real station reading, not an estimate.

Cleaner areas — where to go

  • 92Sector-2, RourkelaSatisfactory

Worst areas — where to avoid

  • 309Raghunathpali, RourkelaVery Poor

Monitoring stations in Rourkela

3 live CPCB stations, ranked worst air first. Each station's AQI is its own highest pollutant sub-index.

StationAQICategoryPM2.5PM10
Raghunathpali, Rourkela - OSPCB309Very Poor130121
Fertilizer Township, Rourkela - OSPCB137Moderate7170
Sector-2, Rourkela - OSPCB92Satisfactory5582

Source: CPCB continuous ambient air-quality monitoring stations via data.gov.in. Station-level values are the latest hourly averages.

24-hour AQI graph

min 304 · max 311
01002003009pm: AQI 307 (Very Poor)9pm10pm: AQI 306 (Very Poor)11pm: AQI 305 (Very Poor)12am: AQI 305 (Very Poor)1am: AQI 304 (Very Poor)1am2am: AQI 305 (Very Poor)3am: AQI 306 (Very Poor)4am: AQI 306 (Very Poor)5am: AQI 308 (Very Poor)5am6am: AQI 308 (Very Poor)7am: AQI 308 (Very Poor)8am: AQI 308 (Very Poor)9am: AQI 308 (Very Poor)9am10am: AQI 309 (Very Poor)11am: AQI 309 (Very Poor)12pm: AQI 310 (Very Poor)1pm: AQI 310 (Very Poor)1pm2pm: AQI 311 (Very Poor)3pm: AQI 310 (Very Poor)4pm: AQI 310 (Very Poor)5pm: AQI 309 (Very Poor)5pm6pm: AQI 309 (Very Poor)7pm: AQI 309 (Very Poor)8pm: AQI 309 (Very Poor)8pm

Hourly AQI recorded each hour by DailyAQI (local time). Fills to a rolling 24 hours.

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What Very Poor air means for you

May cause respiratory illness on prolonged exposure; effects more pronounced for people with lung and heart disease.

Health guidance per CPCB National Air Quality Index bands. Informational only — not medical advice.

India's metro cities right now

AQI categories (India scale)

AQICategoryAssociated health impact
0–50GoodAir quality is considered satisfactory and air pollution poses little or no risk.
51–100SatisfactoryAcceptable air quality; minor breathing discomfort possible for unusually sensitive people.
101–200ModerateMay cause breathing discomfort to people with lung disease such as asthma, and to children and older adults.
201–300PoorMay cause breathing discomfort to most people on prolonged exposure.
301–400Very PoorMay cause respiratory illness on prolonged exposure; effects more pronounced for people with lung and heart disease.
401–500SevereAffects healthy people and seriously impacts those with existing diseases; avoid outdoor activity.

Monitoring location

Approximate location of the monitoring station(s) feeding this reading. Map © OpenStreetMap.

About air quality in Rourkela

This page tracks the Rourkela Air Quality Index using measurements from 3 Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) monitoring stations, published through the Government of India's open-data portal. Right now Rourkela's AQI is 309 (Very Poor), with PM2.5 the dominant pollutant. The AQI is a single number from 0 to 500 that summarises how polluted the air is and what it means for health, built from pollutants such as fine particulate matter (PM2.5), coarse particulate matter (PM10), nitrogen dioxide, ground-level ozone and sulphur dioxide — the index reflects whichever is worst at the time.

How Rourkela's air changes through the year

Air quality in Rourkela changes through the day and across the seasons. Levels are usually worse in the early morning and late evening when cooler, calmer air traps pollutants near the ground, and they tend to rise in the cooler months when inversions are more common; the monsoon typically brings the cleanest air as rain washes particulates away.

What drives air pollution in Rourkela

Traffic, construction and road dust, industry and the burning of solid fuels are the main local sources, with regional factors and winter weather adding to the load when the air is calm.

Cleaner and worse areas within Rourkela

Air quality is not uniform across a city. Among Rourkela's monitoring areas right now, the air is cleanest around Sector-2, Rourkela and worst around Raghunathpali, Rourkela — a reminder that local traffic, industry and construction can make a real difference over just a few kilometres. The live area-by-area comparison above shows where to go and where to avoid at this moment.

Best time to visit Rourkela for cleaner air

For the cleanest air, the monsoon and the months just after it are usually best in Rourkela, while the driest, stillest weeks can be worse. Check the live reading on this page before outdoor exercise or sightseeing, and keep an N95 mask handy for high-pollution days. Nearby cities with comparatively cleaner air right now include Madikeri, Srinagar, Thoothukudi.

Staying safe in Rourkela's air

When the AQI is in the Good or Satisfactory range, outdoor activity is fine for almost everyone. From Moderate upward, sensitive groups — children, older adults, pregnant people and anyone with asthma or heart disease — should pace themselves outdoors, and once the air turns Poor or worse it is sensible for everyone to limit strenuous outdoor exertion, keep windows closed, run an air purifier indoors and wear a well-fitting mask outside. This is general information rather than medical advice. We only display a number when a recent station reading exists — if you see "data updating", we are waiting on a fresh value rather than showing an estimate.

Air quality near Rourkela

The nearest monitored cities to Rourkela, with their live AQI — tap any card for its full report.

Protect your health — air quality guides

Frequently asked questions

What is the AQI in Rourkela today?

The current Air Quality Index in Rourkela is 309 (Very Poor) on the Indian CPCB scale, with PM2.5 as the dominant pollutant.

Is it safe to go outside in Rourkela today?

No — Rourkela's AQI is 309 (Very Poor). Avoid outdoor activity, keep windows closed, run a purifier and wear an N95 mask outdoors.

What is the main pollutant in Rourkela?

Today the dominant pollutant driving Rourkela's AQI is PM2.5. The full pollutant breakdown (PM2.5, PM10, NO₂, O₃, CO, SO₂) is listed above.

How is Rourkela's AQI calculated?

Each pollutant's 24-hour concentration is converted to a sub-index using CPCB breakpoints; the city AQI is the highest sub-index. See our methodology.

What is the air quality forecast for Rourkela tomorrow?

Air in Rourkela is forecast to improve tomorrow to around AQI 178 (Moderate), down from about 204 today. Forecasts are modelled estimates (Open-Meteo) and can change.