Worst air pollution Century City - Cape Town, today and tomorrow

On 20 September 2026, overall air quality in Century City is poor. AQI is the main air quality indicator at 65.1/100. Pollution peaks around 12:00 PM (PM1: 65.1/100).

On 21 September 2026, air quality conditions in Century City will be similar to today, with AQI forecast at poor at 63.6/100. Pollution peaks around 11:00 PM (PM1: 63.6/100).

The only real dip in air quality at Century City comes on the rare still winter morning, when the Cape's usual wind stops doing its job and emissions from the city bowl, harbour, and southern suburbs linger a little longer than usual. Most of the year, especially summer, the southeaster keeps things clear. This is a familiar pattern across much of the Cape.

It is forecasts derived by downscaling forecasts provided by EU’s Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) by taking into account local conditions such as traffic patterns. CAMS bases its forecast on satellite measurements of particles and chemical compounds in the atmosphere. Airmine’s services were developed with support from the European Space Agency (ESA)’s Business Applications and Space Solutions (BASS) team.

Airmine’s forecast uses CAMS (Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service) as its background atmospheric model. While CAMS includes wildfire emissions, these are derived from satellite observations and are not available in real time. During rapidly evolving wildfire events, there may therefore be a delay before increased emissions are incorporated into the model. As a result, the forecast may temporarily underestimate PM₂.₅ and other pollutants associated with wildfire smoke.

During rapidly evolving wildfire events, CAMS may lag by approximately 1–2 days before increased wildfire emissions are fully represented, which can lead to temporary underestimation of PM₂.₅ concentrations in Airmine’s forecast.