RAPID CITY, SD – Rapid City residents will experience smoky conditions today, caused by a drift of smoke from regional wildfires. City officials are reminding the public that they can monitor daily and hourly air quality conditions directly on the city’s home page.

Since 2021, the “Air Quality Index” feature link has been located in two places on the Rapid City website at www.rcgov.org, found within the Community Bookmark and “What’s News In The City” sections. For the Rapid City area, the index displays a color-coded scale ranging from 0 to 500.

At 7:15 a.m. Wednesday, the index reflected a “Moderate” reading of 60 on the scale for Rapid City. This designation includes an advisory for individuals who are unusually sensitive to particle pollution to consider reducing their outdoor activity levels or shortening the amount of time they spend outdoors.

Visitors who click the link are taken to AirNow, a one-stop source for air quality data. The color-coded scale is used to communicate local air quality for the Rapid City region as well as locations nationwide. The platform also features a color-coded map matching the scale to illustrate regional air quality. The index displays current conditions, updates hourly, notes specific pollutants impacting the air, and provides activity recommendations.

AirNow reports air quality using the official U.S. Air Quality Index. The system operates as a partnership between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Park Service, NASA, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and various tribal, state and local air quality agencies.