City report · California, United States
Lancaster Air quality today
Air quality in Lancaster currently reads AQI 17 (Good): Air quality is satisfactory for everyone.
Air quality right now
AQI 17
Good
- PM2.5, fine particles (µg/m³)
- 3.0
- tree cover
- 8.7%
- trees in this area
- 27.3K
- more trees needed
- 66.9K
Measured across a 1.2 mi (2 km) radius around Lancaster, CA, USA (4.9 sq mi), from a satellite image of Sep 14, 2026. Lower AQI is better: 0–50 is Good, above 300 is Hazardous.
Lancaster · AQI 17 (Good)
Lancaster's tree count comes to 27,332 trees across 4.9 sq mi (12.57 km²), 21 points below the 30% tree-cover level considered healthy for this area, so roughly 66,916 more trees would close the gap.
Air quality detail
Air quality in Lancaster today: AQI 17, Good
Main pollutant: PM2.5 · Observed Nov 11, 06:00 local time via OpenAQ ground stations, US EPA index. Values in µg/m³.
Ground station · Lancaster-Fairground, 3.0 mi (4.9 km) away
Health signal
Air quality is satisfactory for everyone.
PM2.5
3.0
PM10
—
NO₂
10.0
O₃
17.7
SO₂
—
CO
—
Data: OpenAQ · AirNow
- Outdoor exercise
- A good day to be active outside
- Windows
- Open them to air the house
- Mask
- Not needed
- Air purifier
- Not needed
Over the last 7 days, the CAMS air-quality model put Lancaster's daily AQI at 26 on average, from 20 on Nov 10 to an hourly peak of 56 on Nov 6.
Where Lancaster stands: the most polluted cities in the world right now · the cleanest
Tree cover detail
Tree cover in Lancaster: Critically low
8.7% tree cover against a 30% healthy-neighborhood target, across 4.9 sq mi (12.57 km²).
Trees in this area
27,332
Target trees
94,248
More trees needed
66,916
CO₂ if planted / yr
1,472 t
Deforestation · 2001–2025
How much forest has Lancaster lost?
There was almost no forest around Lancaster 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 June 2017 of a 5 × 5 km area in the city center.
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. Images: contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data. How it's measured
In the same region
Measured cities near Lancaster
Same 2 km radius, same index — so they compare directly.
- Palmdale13.3 km
United States
- Tree cover
- 4%
- Air quality
- 17
- Santa Clarita50.4 km
United States
- Tree cover
- 22%
- Air quality
- 13
- Valencia51.7 km
United States
- Tree cover
- 11%
- Air quality
- 13
- Burbank59.6 km
United States
- Tree cover
- 15%
- Air quality
- 34
- Pasadena61.2 km
United States
- Tree cover
- 26%
- Air quality
- 26
- Van Nuys63.7 km
United States
- Tree cover
- 19%
- Air quality
- 34
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Frequently asked
Questions about Lancaster
What is the air quality (AQI) in Lancaster right now?
The latest reading for Lancaster shows an AQI of 17 (Good), measured Nov 11, 06:00 local time by the Lancaster-Fairground ground monitoring station, 3.0 mi (4.9 km) away, via OpenAQ. The main pollutant is PM2.5. Air quality is satisfactory for everyone.
Is it safe to exercise outside in Lancaster today?
At AQI 17 (Good): a good day to be active outside. Windows: open them to air the house. Masks: not needed. The reading changes through the day, so check again before a long run or ride.
What has the air quality in Lancaster been like this week?
Over the last 7 days, the CAMS air-quality model put Lancaster's daily AQI at 26 on average, from 20 on Nov 10 to an hourly peak of 56 on Nov 6. No day averaged above 100, the level where the air turns unhealthy for sensitive groups.
How much forest has the area around Lancaster lost since 2001?
There was almost no forest around Lancaster 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.
What is the tree count in Lancaster?
Lancaster has an estimated 27,332 trees across the 4.9 sq mi (12.57 km²) measured — 8.7% tree cover, 21 percentage points short of the 30% tree-cover target set for this area.
How many more trees does Lancaster need?
Lancaster needs roughly 66,916 more trees to close a 21-point shortfall against its 30% tree-cover target — about 1,472 t of extra CO₂ absorbed per year once grown.
How are Lancaster's air quality and tree cover measured?
Air quality is measured by ground monitoring stations near Lancaster, via OpenAQ; the 7-day trend is the Open-Meteo / CAMS model's estimate. Tree cover is measured from Sentinel-2 L2A (ESA Copernicus) via Earth Search satellite imagery at 10 m detail across a 1.2 mi (2 km) radius around Lancaster; the tree count is an estimate derived from that cover.
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