Is the air OK today?

The Air Quality Health Index for Moose Jaw right now and the hours ahead — from the nearest Environment Canada station, with the health advice for at-risk people and for everyone else.

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About these tools

Town Tools builds free, public tools for Moose Jaw 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.

Time

Index

Risk

5 a.m.

Low risk

6 a.m.

Low risk

7 a.m.

Low risk

8 a.m.

Low risk

9 a.m.

Low risk

10 a.m.

Low risk

11 a.m.

Low risk

12 p.m.

Low risk

Time

Index

Risk

Today — worst around 8 a.m.

Low risk

Tuesday, October 13 — worst around 12 a.m.

Low risk

Good to know

The smoke is never from here

Moose Jaw sits in dry grain country with no forest anywhere near it, so the smoke that spoils a summer week always arrives from somewhere else — fires in British Columbia, the Pacific Northwest, the northern prairies and the Northwest Territories, carried down on the upper winds. That is why the index can climb on a bright, still day with nothing burning within five hundred kilometres, and why it can clear again just as fast when the wind turns.

980 CJME — Heat and wildfire smoke linger over southern Saskatchewan, 27 July 2026

Roughly one Moose Jaw resident in five is in the at-risk group

Twenty-one per cent of the city is 65 or over — well above the national share — and Environment Canada's at-risk advice is written for exactly that group, along with young children and anyone with a heart or lung condition. When the index reaches the moderate band the advice for everyone else is still "carry on", while the advice here has already changed. If that is you or someone in your house, read the left-hand column first.

The advisories name Moose Jaw, and they come and go within a day

On 2 August 2026 Environment Canada's air quality statement covered Regina, Moose Jaw and 123 rural municipalities across southern Saskatchewan, and was lifted again the same day. Late July brought several days of smoke over the city alongside forecast highs of 32 to 33 degrees. A smoke episode here is usually a matter of hours rather than weeks, which is the argument for checking the number rather than remembering yesterday's.

620 CKRM — Air quality advisory for south Sask due to wildfire smoke, 2 August 2026

Heat and smoke tend to arrive together

The same stagnant high-pressure summer pattern that traps smoke over the southern prairie is the one that pushes Moose Jaw past 30 degrees, so the days when going outside is hardest on your lungs are often the days it is hardest on your heart too. If you are rescheduling something because of the index, the cooler hour is usually the clearer one as well — early morning, before the day's heating stirs the air.

Official pages

Environment Canada — Regina AQHIThe official page for the exact reading shown above, including the day's forecast.
Environment Canada — Moose Jaw forecast and alertsWhere a special air quality statement for Moose Jaw itself appears.
AQHI across SaskatchewanEvery reporting station in the province — useful for seeing which way a smoke plume is moving.
Government of Saskatchewan — air quality advisoriesThe provincial public health advisory page.
SaskAlertSaskatchewan's emergency alert service — evacuation and wildfire alerts, not routine smoke.
Protecting yourself from wildfire smoke

Is the air OK today?

About these tools

If you’re in the at-risk group

Everyone else

The outlook

Next hours

Worst hour each day

Good to know

The smoke is never from here

Roughly one Moose Jaw resident in five is in the at-risk group

The advisories name Moose Jaw, and they come and go within a day

Heat and smoke tend to arrive together

Official pages