Air. It's the stuff you breathe.
Reading the air you're breathing…
How this air treats you
Outside · on your skinChecking…
Inside · every breathChecking…
Tap either one to see why.
Where your air has been
Read your air's story
Your sky is a stack of layers
The air mostly stays put
Why?
A rising bubble cools 5.4°F per 1,000 ft as it expands. Dashed line left of the real air: the bubble is colder and sinks back. Right of it: warmer, so it keeps rising.
Go deeper
Sinking works in reverse. Air pushed down is squeezed and warms the same 5.4°F per 1,000 ft. That's why a Santa Ana arrives hot: air from 5,000 ft over the desert gains about 25°F on the way to the coast. How Santa Anas work
Clouds change the math. Once a bubble cools to its dew point and makes cloud, the condensing water releases heat, so it cools only about 3°F per 1,000 ft. Humid air can keep rising where dry air would stall. That's how thunderstorms grow. Thunder and lightning
Lids trap things. Warm air over cool air is called an inversion. It holds the marine layer, valley fog, smog and smoke near the ground until sun or wind breaks it. Why it gets hazy · Why fog forms
These are model temperatures (Open-Meteo) at about 2,500, 5,000 and 10,000 ft, so a very thin lid near the ground can slip between them.
What am I looking at?
Layers: the three heights we traced back three days. Rain: radar, last 50 minutes. Clouds: satellite, which sees what radar can't.
Right here
Reading your air…
What am I looking at?
Learn more →For the weather nerds
Why dew point, not humidity?
Relative humidity swings all day with the temperature. Dew point measures how much water is actually in the air, so it tracks what your skin feels.
How the air trail is traced
We follow NOAA's GFS model winds backward from your spot, three hours at a time for three days, at about 2,500, 5,000 and 10,000 ft. Treat it as the general path: it gets less certain the further back it goes.
Go deeper
Our own server traces every half-degree spot across North America each hour; elsewhere your browser traces it live from Open-Meteo.
How "On you" is judged
Sweat: dew point (under 55°F easy, 65°F+ hard to cool). Wind: how much colder it makes you feel, and gusts. Sun: the UV index (3+ moderate, 8+ very high). Air quality: the US EPA AQI (51+ moderate, 101+ unhealthy for sensitive groups). Nose and throat: very dry or very humid air. Sleep: tonight's low (bedrooms sleep best around 65°F). Pressure shows up only after a big swing, about 5 hPa or more in a day. These are rules of thumb, not medical advice.
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