Wildfire Smoke Planner

Plan a smoke day before conditions get worse

This page turns AQI into a practical smoke-response ladder. Use it to decide when to shift from monitoring to indoor protection, schedule changes, and overnight air management.

Open the calculator in wildfire modeCompare a normal day with a smoke day

Build your smoke-day plan

Enter the conditions you expect and get a focused exposure estimate plus a short action list.

Your result will appear here

The plan combines the site’s AQI conversion, action checklist, and the activity you select.

Smoke day planning ladder

These checkpoints show how the response plan changes as smoke deepens from a cautionary day to a full indoor-air problem.

AQI 100

Moderate

1.61 cigarette-equivalents per 24h

Shift hard workouts to cleaner hours or indoor spaces.
Limit unnecessary exposure for children and sensitive groups.
Keep a mask and indoor-air plan ready if readings continue rising.

AQI 150

Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups

2.52 cigarette-equivalents per 24h

Move exercise indoors or shorten it substantially.
Use a well-fitted N95 if you must spend time outdoors.
Run HEPA filtration or create one cleaner indoor room.

AQI 200

Unhealthy

5.7 cigarette-equivalents per 24h

Cancel outdoor workouts, long walks, and open-window ventilation.
Use a quality mask outdoors and keep trips short.
Prioritize clean indoor air with HEPA filtration and closed windows.

If smoke is forecast tomorrow

Do the setup work early. Smoke planning is more useful before the house smells smoky or the day is already committed.

Close windows early once smoke is moving in, not after the house already smells smoky.
Run filtration continuously in the main living space and sleeping area.
Keep essential trips short and mask outdoors.
Save the current AQI result URL and review it with the next forecast update.

When smoke lasts overnight or several days

Multi-day smoke events change the priority from short outdoor decisions to bedroom air, symptom tracking, and reducing repeated dose.

  • Smoke smell indoors, which often means the house is no longer protective enough.
  • AQI staying above 150 overnight or across multiple days.
  • Vulnerable household members developing symptoms even when inside.

Cleaner indoor air

Turn the smoke plan into an equipment plan

Size the airflow your room needs, compare a tested DIY cleaner design, and budget for the electricity and filters before the next smoke event.

Air purifier size calculator

Convert room dimensions and target air changes into a smoke CADR target.

DIY air cleaner calculator

Compare EPA-tested box-fan designs by estimated smoke CADR and room ACH.

Purifier cost calculator

Estimate electricity, filter, annual, and three-year ownership costs.

Useful next pages

Compare a normal day with a smoke day

See how a smoke day compares with a routine AQI day before deciding what to postpone.

Open the calculator in wildfire mode

Test the current AQI, duration, and scenario instead of relying on the default smoke-day example.

Seattle

Wildfire smoke season can push Seattle from routine to severe AQI quickly.

Los Angeles

Late summer and fall wildfire smoke can change the whole planning baseline in a few hours.

San Francisco

Fire season smoke can create fast afternoon changes even after a clean morning.

Trust Signals

Plan a smoke day before conditions get worse

Review methodology

Review policy

August 8, 2026. We update supporting pages when calculator logic, live data behavior, or source framing changes.

Primary sources

AQI uses EPA / AirNow breakpoint logic. Cigarette-equivalent framing follows Berkeley Earth’s PM2.5 interpretation.

AirNow AQIBerkeley Earth

Live data layer

City pages use EPA AirNow where supported, with cached fallbacks and planning baselines if the API fails or coverage is unavailable.