A plain-language read on the fine-particle air over Beirut, updated through the day — with the diesel-generator story behind it.
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A plain-language read on the air over Beirut — the fine-particle (PM2.5) level and how it moves through the day. In a city that runs on private diesel generators, air quality is a real health question, and this gives you the trend at a glance.
Fair Fine for being outside, including exercise, for almost everyone.
| Day | Air quality |
|---|---|
| Fri 31 Jul | Moderate |
| Sat 1 Aug | Fair |
| Sun 2 Aug | Poor |
| Mon 3 Aug | Poor |
With the state grid (EDL) supplying only a few hours a day, most of Beirut runs on private neighbourhood generators — the ishtirak. That diesel exhaust is a documented health cost: researchers at the American University of Beirut found that running generators just a few hours a day roughly doubled the carcinogenic particles people breathe, and that diesel was the single biggest source of the city's fine particles. When the grid is off and your street is humming on diesel, the exhaust is in the air around you.
The heaviest generator demand is the summer, when air conditioning runs across the city and the generators work hardest. Add Beirut's dense traffic, and the fine particles build up closest to the ground on still, windless days. A sea breeze off the Mediterranean clears the air through much of the day — it's the calm evenings, when the wind drops and the generators run, that often feel heaviest.
Fine-particle pollution is hardest on children, older people, pregnant women, and anyone with asthma or a heart or lung condition. On a high-reading day it helps to keep hard outdoor exercise for a cleaner window, and to keep windows shut on a still evening when a generator nearby is running. Standing right beside a running generator, or in heavy traffic, is always worse than the area average.
Lebanon has no reliable public air-quality station network — the environment ministry's monitors have long gone dark — so this reading comes from a satellite-fed model of the area, not a sensor on your street. Treat it as a guide to the trend and the bad days, not a precise measurement of the air at your window.
Updated . These are modelled estimates for the area around central Beirut, not readings from a street monitor — air right beside a busy road can be worse than the area-wide picture. Air quality data by Open-Meteo (CC BY 4.0), based on Copernicus CAMS.