City report · Ceará, Brazil
Sobral Air quality today
Air quality in Sobral currently reads AQI 49 (Good): Air quality is satisfactory for everyone.
Air quality right now
AQI 49
Good
- PM2.5, fine particles (µg/m³)
- 8.6
- tree cover
- 13.3%
- trees in this area
- 41.7K
- more trees needed
- 52.4K
Measured across a 2 km radius around Centro, Sobral - CE, Brazil (12.57 km²), from a satellite image of Oct 27, 2026. Lower AQI is better: 0–50 is Good, above 300 is Hazardous.
Sobral · AQI 49 (Good)
Sobral's tree count comes to 41,700 trees across 12.54 km² of land, 17 points below the 30% tree-cover level considered healthy for this area, so roughly 52,360 more trees would close the gap.
Air quality detail
Air quality in Sobral today: AQI 49, Good
Main pollutant: PM2.5 · Observed Nov 10, 11:00 local time via Open-Meteo / CAMS, US EPA index. Values in µg/m³.
Model estimate · no ground station nearby
Health signal
Air quality is satisfactory for everyone.
PM2.5
8.6
PM10
13.8
NO₂
0.7
O₃
70.0
SO₂
1.1
CO
151.0
- 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 Sobral's daily AQI at 41 on average, from 31 on Nov 4 to an hourly peak of 55 on Nov 7.
Where Sobral stands: the most polluted cities in the world right now · the cleanest
Tree cover detail
Tree cover in Sobral: Critically low
13.3% tree cover against a 30% healthy-neighborhood target, across 12.54 km² of land.
Trees in this area
41,700
Target trees
94,060
More trees needed
52,360
CO₂ if planted / yr
1,152 t
Deforestation · 2001–2025
How much forest has Sobral lost?
Since 2001, the area within 10 km of Sobral has lost about 369 hectares of forest (about 520 football pitches): 9.8% of the forest it had in 2000. Most of it (98%) was deforestation, forest cleared for good, mainly for farms, pasture and plantations.
2017: satellite photo from September 2017 of a 5 × 5 km area in the city center.
- Forest lost since 2001
- 369 haabout 520 football pitches
- Share of its forest
- 9.8%of what there was in 2000
- Cleared for good
- 360 hadeforestation: turned into farms, mines or towns
The worst year was 2012, when about 68 hectares of forest were lost.
Hectares of forest lost each year
Show the figures as a table
| Year | Cleared for good | Can grow back | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | 49 ha | under 1 ha | 50 ha |
| 2002 | 26 ha | under 1 ha | 26 ha |
| 2003 | 8 ha | under 1 ha | 8 ha |
| 2004 | 10 ha | under 1 ha | 10 ha |
| 2005 | 6 ha | under 1 ha | 6 ha |
| 2006 | 26 ha | under 1 ha | 26 ha |
| 2007 | 8 ha | under 1 ha | 8 ha |
| 2008 | 22 ha | under 1 ha | 22 ha |
| 2009 | under 1 ha | under 1 ha | under 1 ha |
| 2010 | 50 ha | 1 ha | 51 ha |
| 2011 | 16 ha | under 1 ha | 17 ha |
| 2012 | 65 ha | 3 ha | 68 ha |
| 2013 | 3 ha | under 1 ha | 3 ha |
| 2014 | 3 ha | under 1 ha | 4 ha |
| 2015 | 31 ha | under 1 ha | 32 ha |
| 2016 | 17 ha | under 1 ha | 17 ha |
| 2017 | 9 ha | under 1 ha | 9 ha |
| 2018 | 2 ha | under 1 ha | 2 ha |
| 2019 | 5 ha | under 1 ha | 5 ha |
| 2020 | 3 ha | under 1 ha | 3 ha |
| 2021 | under 1 ha | under 1 ha | under 1 ha |
| 2022 | under 1 ha | under 1 ha | under 1 ha |
| 2023 | 3 ha | under 1 ha | 3 ha |
| 2024 | under 1 ha | under 1 ha | under 1 ha |
| 2025 | under 1 ha | under 1 ha | under 1 ha |
What is causing deforestation around Sobral?
- Farms, pasture and plantationscleared for good80% · 294 ha
- Towns and roadscleared for good15% · 55 ha
- Mining and energycleared for good3.2% · 12 ha
Also: wildfires, storms, floods and other natural causes, unknown causes.
Causes for 2025 are estimates, based on what caused forest loss in the same places up to 2024.
Forest gained and lost, 2000–2020
- Forest in 2000
- 1,420 ha
- Forest in 2020
- 1,410 ha
- Overall change
- −4 haless forest than in 2000
Comparing satellite maps from 2000 and 2020, the forest around Sobral stayed about the same size, at about 1,410 hectares: new forest grew on about 31 hectares, and about 36 hectares were 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 Sobral
What is the air quality (AQI) in Sobral right now?
The latest reading for Sobral shows an AQI of 49 (Good), observed Nov 10, 11:00 local time via Open-Meteo / CAMS, US EPA index. The main pollutant is PM2.5. Air quality is satisfactory for everyone.
Is it safe to exercise outside in Sobral today?
At AQI 49 (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 Sobral been like this week?
Over the last 7 days, the CAMS air-quality model put Sobral's daily AQI at 41 on average, from 31 on Nov 4 to an hourly peak of 55 on Nov 7. No day averaged above 100, the level where the air turns unhealthy for sensitive groups.
How much forest has the area around Sobral lost since 2001?
Since 2001, the area within 10 km of Sobral has lost about 369 hectares of forest (about 520 football pitches): 9.8% of the forest it had in 2000. Most of it (98%) was deforestation, forest cleared for good, mainly for farms, pasture and plantations. Comparing satellite maps from 2000 and 2020, the forest around Sobral stayed about the same size, at about 1,410 hectares: new forest grew on about 31 hectares, and about 36 hectares were lost.
What is the tree count in Sobral?
Sobral has an estimated 41,700 trees across the 12.54 km² of land measured — 13.3% tree cover, 17 percentage points short of the 30% tree-cover target set for this area.
How many more trees does Sobral need?
Sobral needs roughly 52,360 more trees to close a 17-point shortfall against its 30% tree-cover target — about 1,152 t of extra CO₂ absorbed per year once grown.
How are Sobral'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 Centro; the tree count is an estimate derived from that cover.
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