Air Quality In Davenport Is Currently Equal To 9 Cigarettes

Humidity, meet wildfires. It's July 2026.

As if we're not already dealing with hot weather, humidity, and summer storms, we now have the wildfire smoke from Canada drifting down on us and it's making breathing dangerous.

If your eyes got red when you walked outside this morning, you're not alone.

Davenport's air quality is currently 152. Dr. Jonathan M. Tan, division chief of General Anesthesiology at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, told AccuWeather that:

Scientists have found that an air quality reading of about 20 on the AQI scale is roughly like smoking one cigarette a day...So when the AQI climbs into the 150+ range for a full day outside, that’s in the ballpark of 7 to 9 cigarettes.

The main issue are 'PM2.5' (particulate matter less than 2.5 microns), which in non-science terms, is really the carbon dioxide and nitrogen released from places like wildfires, construction sites, etc.

Now, before you go swearing that indoors is perfectly safe, remember that air is recycled so this ick combination of benzene/nitrogen/PM will still get inside to some degree.

Iowa DNR issued an Air Quality Alert until 11:00 a.m. on Monday.

Here's the good news though: humidity can drop after wildfire smoke moves through an area. Are we done with corn sweat for the season? I doubt it. But we'll take any relief we can get.

As for how long the wildfire smoke is supposed to last around here, that's anyone's guess. Best answer: it'll last until it goes away. But you can keep up with it daily here.