Bristol air today: pollution and pollen, hour by hour

Today's air quality for Bristol in plain words, with pollen in season — and an honest note on what a city-wide reading misses on busy roads.

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About these tools

Town Tools builds free, public tools for Bristol and towns around the world. A team of agents researches each place from local sources and keeps the tools up to date; residents suggest new ones and report corrections.

Right now

Good The air is about as clean as it gets — no reason to change any plans.

Air quality index · European Air Quality Index

European scale: under 20 is good, over 60 is poor

2.9 µg/m³

Fine particles (PM2.5)

The pollutant that matters most for health

6.5 µg/m³

Nitrogen dioxide

Mostly from traffic

51.0 µg/m³

Ozone

Forms on hot, sunny days

Pollen

Level

Peak today

Grass

Low

0 grains/m³

Birch

Low

0 grains/m³

Day

Air quality

Grass pollen

Tue 13 Oct

Fair

Low

Wed 14 Oct

Fair

Low

Thu 15 Oct

Fair

Low

Fri 16 Oct

Fair

—

Worth knowing

Why Bristol has a clean air charge

The Clean Air Zone exists to bring nitrogen dioxide (NO2), mostly from diesel traffic, under the legal limit of 40 µg/m³. It has helped but not finished the job: five monitoring sites were still above the limit in 2024, and levels rose at 43 of 191 sites between 2023 and 2024, according to the council's own figures. The zone charge is on its own page — see the clean air charge tool.

What this reading is, and is not

The figures here come from a European air-quality model on a grid roughly 10 km across, not from a sensor on your street. It reads the city's general air well and will usually read lower than a kerbside monitor on a busy road such as Temple Way or the A38, where fumes pile up between buildings. If you are walking or cycling a main road at rush hour, expect the street to be worse than this number.

Pollen

Grass pollen is the one that matters most in Bristol, from late May to July. Birch pollen peaks in April. The pollen panel switches on in season and stays quiet the rest of the year.

Bristol air today: pollution and pollen, hour by hour

About these tools

Right now

Pollen today

Next few days

Worth knowing

Why Bristol has a clean air charge

What this reading is, and is not

Pollen