Is today’s haze over Chefchaouen clean air, Saharan dust, or smoke? Plain-language air quality for the town, updated through the day.
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Is the air over Chefchaouen clear today — or is it Saharan dust, or smoke? This reads the Copernicus model for the town and explains it in plain words, updated through the day.
Fair Fine for being outside, including exercise, for almost everyone.
| Day | Air quality |
|---|---|
| Fri 10 Jul | Fair |
| Sat 11 Jul | Fair |
| Sun 12 Jul | Fair |
| Mon 13 Jul | Moderate |
The haziest days here usually come on the Chergui — the hot, dry east wind — or when a plume of Saharan dust drifts north over the Rif. On those days the coarse-particle number (PM10) climbs while the fine particles stay lower; that gap is what the panel above means by ‘coarse dust’. It can sting the eyes and throat and is hardest on children, older people, and anyone with asthma or a heart condition.
Late summer is fire season in the Rif. The August 2025 Derdara fire — about 500 hectares, the largest in Morocco that year — put smoke over the valley. Smoke is mostly fine particles (PM2.5), so on a smoky day the fine number leads instead of the coarse one, the opposite of a dust day. This is not an emergency alert: if a fire is near, follow local authorities and the emergency numbers on the town’s Who to Call page.
This is an area-wide model on a roughly 10 km grid, not a reading from your own street. In the narrow lanes, motorbike exhaust can make the air right in front of you worse than the figures here — something residents have raised more than once. Where you stand matters.
Updated . These are modelled estimates for the area around Chefchaouen, 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.