How much smoke and haze is in the Yackandandah valley today, hour by hour, on the published air-quality scale — the companion to the fire pages in summer and a watch on woodheater smoke on still winter nights.
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How much smoke and haze is in the valley air today, hour by hour, in plain words. It is the companion to the fire pages: when there's a fire in the region, this is where to see whether the smoke is reaching Yackandandah — and on a still winter night it will pick up woodheater smoke settling on the valley floor too.
Good The air is about as clean as it gets — no reason to change any plans.
| Day | Air quality |
|---|---|
| Fri 31 Jul | Fair |
| Sat 1 Aug | Fair |
| Sun 2 Aug | Fair |
| Mon 3 Aug | Good |
In fire season, roughly October to April, smoke can settle over Yackandandah even when the fire itself is a long way off. Through the 2019–20 Black Summer, north-east Victoria spent weeks under thick bushfire smoke. The number this page watches most, PM2.5, is the fine particle that smoke is made of and the one that matters most for your lungs.
Yackandandah sits low in a frost-prone valley. On calm, cold nights the air stops moving and can trap woodheater smoke close to the ground until the morning sun lifts it. Dry, seasoned wood and a hot, brisk fire make far less smoke than a damp log left to smoulder — better for the valley and for your chimney.
There is no EPA air monitor in Yackandandah — the nearest, at Wangaratta, was taken offline in May 2026 — so these figures come from a global atmosphere model, not a sensor on the main street. Treat them as a reliable guide, not a precise reading. In any smoke event, trust your eyes and nose: if you can see or smell smoke, take sensible care whatever the number says, and check EPA AirWatch and the fire pages.
Updated . These are modelled estimates for the area around the Yackandandah valley, not readings from a street monitor — air right beside a busy road can be worse than the area-wide picture. Official forecast: epa.vic.gov.au. Air quality data by Open-Meteo (CC BY 4.0), based on Copernicus CAMS.