City report · Ethiopia
Dire Dawa Air quality today
Air quality in Dire Dawa currently reads AQI 117 (Unhealthy for sensitive groups): Sensitive groups should limit long or intense outdoor activity.
AQI 117
Air quality right now
Unhealthy for sensitive groups
- PM2.5, fine particles (µg/m³)
- 49.2
- tree cover
- 19.3%
- trees in this area
- 60.6K
- more trees needed
- 49.3K
Measured across a 2 km radius around Dire Dawa, Ethiopia (12.57 km²), from a satellite image of Sep 26, 2026. Lower AQI is better: 0–50 is Good, above 300 is Hazardous.
Dire Dawa · AQI 117 (Unhealthy for sensitive groups)
Dire Dawa's tree count comes to 60,633 trees across 12.57 km², 16 points below the 35% tree-cover level considered healthy for this area, so roughly 49,323 more trees would close the gap.
Air quality detail
Air quality in Dire Dawa today: AQI 117, Unhealthy for sensitive groups
Main pollutant: PM2.5 · Observed Nov 10, 22:00 local time via Open-Meteo / CAMS, US EPA index. Values in µg/m³.
Model estimate · no ground station nearby
Health signal
Sensitive groups should limit long or intense outdoor activity.
PM2.5
49.2
PM10
50.4
NO₂
12.8
O₃
25.0
SO₂
4.5
CO
1694.0
- Outdoor exercise
- Children, older adults and people with asthma or heart disease should cut down long or hard exercise
- Windows
- Close them to keep the outside air out
- Mask
- Sensitive groups: an N95 outdoors
- Air purifier
- Run one, especially in bedrooms
Over the last 7 days, the CAMS air-quality model put Dire Dawa's daily AQI at 103 on average, from 89 on Nov 10 to an hourly peak of 179 on Nov 5.
Where Dire Dawa stands: the most polluted cities in the world right now · the cleanest
Tree cover detail
Tree cover in Dire Dawa: Critically low
19.3% tree cover against a 35% healthy-neighborhood target, across 12.57 km².
Trees in this area
60,633
Target trees
109,956
More trees needed
49,323
CO₂ if planted / yr
1,085 t
Deforestation · 2001–2025
How much forest has Dire Dawa lost?
There was almost no forest around Dire Dawa in 2000, so there has been almost nothing to lose since. Only fairly dense woodland counts as forest in these maps, so scattered street and garden trees don't show up here.
2017: satellite photo from January 2017 of a 5 × 5 km area in the city center.
Forest gained and lost, 2000–2020
- Forest in 2000
- 84 ha
- Forest in 2020
- 125 ha
- Overall change
- +41 hamore forest than in 2000
Comparing satellite maps from 2000 and 2020, the forest around Dire Dawa grew from about 84 hectares to 125 hectares, a net gain of about 41 hectares. New forest grew on about 41 hectares, while under 1 hectare was lost.
These 2000 and 2020 maps, from the University of Maryland, count any land with trees taller than 5 m as forest, including plantations and orchards. Forest that was cut or burned and had grown back by 2020 counts in both years, so the loss here is smaller than the yearly figures.
These figures cover everything within 10 km of the city center, a wider area than the report above, because forest is usually lost at a city's edges.
Source: Hansen/UMD/Google/USGS/NASA, Global Forest Change (GFC-2025-v1.13); causes: WRI/Google DeepMind drivers of forest loss; both CC BY 4.0, summed by Airleaf for each area. Forest gained and lost 2000–2020: Potapov et al. 2022, UMD GLAD Global Land Cover and Land Use Change, CC BY 4.0. Images: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data. How it's measured
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Frequently asked
Questions about Dire Dawa
What is the air quality (AQI) in Dire Dawa right now?
The latest reading for Dire Dawa shows an AQI of 117 (Unhealthy for sensitive groups), observed Nov 10, 22:00 local time via Open-Meteo / CAMS, US EPA index. The main pollutant is PM2.5. Sensitive groups should limit long or intense outdoor activity.
Is it safe to exercise outside in Dire Dawa today?
At AQI 117 (Unhealthy for sensitive groups): children, older adults and people with asthma or heart disease should cut down long or hard exercise. Windows: close them to keep the outside air out. Masks: sensitive groups: an N95 outdoors. The reading changes through the day, so check again before a long run or ride.
What has the air quality in Dire Dawa been like this week?
Over the last 7 days, the CAMS air-quality model put Dire Dawa's daily AQI at 103 on average, from 89 on Nov 10 to an hourly peak of 179 on Nov 5. On 5 of those days the average was above 100, unhealthy for sensitive groups.
How much forest has the area around Dire Dawa lost since 2001?
There was almost no forest around Dire Dawa in 2000, so there has been almost nothing to lose since. Only fairly dense woodland counts as forest in these maps, so scattered street and garden trees don't show up here. Comparing satellite maps from 2000 and 2020, the forest around Dire Dawa grew from about 84 hectares to 125 hectares, a net gain of about 41 hectares. New forest grew on about 41 hectares, while under 1 hectare was lost.
What is the tree count in Dire Dawa?
Dire Dawa has an estimated 60,633 trees across the 12.57 km² measured — 19.3% tree cover, 16 percentage points short of the 35% tree-cover target set for this area.
How many more trees does Dire Dawa need?
Dire Dawa needs roughly 49,323 more trees to close a 16-point shortfall against its 35% tree-cover target — about 1,085 t of extra CO₂ absorbed per year once grown.
How are Dire Dawa's air quality and tree cover measured?
Air quality comes from ground monitoring stations via OpenAQ where one reports nearby, and otherwise, as here, from the Open-Meteo / CAMS model, which may differ from street-level monitors. Tree cover is measured from Sentinel-2 L2A (ESA Copernicus) via Earth Search satellite imagery at 10 m detail across a 2 km radius around Dire Dawa; the tree count is an estimate derived from that cover.
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