Air quality in Penang right now
Highest station AQI
62Unusually sensitive people should consider limiting long outdoor exertion.
- Measured at
- Perai, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia
- Reading taken
- 12:00 pm
- Stations reporting
- 7 of 7
- Latest day vs previous
- Down 3 from 67
As of 28 Oct, 12:00 pm MYT, the highest reporting monitoring station in Pulau Pinang recorded a US EPA Air Quality Index of 62, which is Moderate. The reading came from Perai, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia, with 7 of 7 stations in the region reporting. This is not Malaysia's official Air Pollutant Index.
Penang’s recent air quality
Built from our own archive of hourly readings, so it shows what actually happened here rather than only what is happening now.
Highest station reading in Penang each hour, on the US EPA AQI scale. A break in the line is an hour with no reporting station, not a reading of zero.
The highest reading recorded in Penang on each day, Malaysian time. Days with no reporting station are absent rather than shown as zero.
The worst reading we hold for Penang is 170 on Sunday, 18 October 2026. In the last 13 days, 9 days have had at least one hour at 101 or above.
Our archive for this region starts Friday, 16 October 2026 and now covers 13 days.
Show the last 13 days as a table
| Date | Peak | Band | Mean of hourly peaks | Hours at 101+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wednesday, 28 October 2026 | 64 | Moderate | 60 | 0 of 13 |
| Tuesday, 27 October 2026 | 67 | Moderate | 63 | 0 of 23 |
| Monday, 26 October 2026 | 59 | Moderate | 57 | 0 of 24 |
| Sunday, 25 October 2026 | 69 | Moderate | 58 | 0 of 24 |
| Saturday, 24 October 2026 | 122 | Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups | 83 | 5 of 24 |
| Friday, 23 October 2026 | 151 | Unhealthy | 93 | 6 of 24 |
| Thursday, 22 October 2026 | 116 | Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups | 89 | 3 of 24 |
| Wednesday, 21 October 2026 | 156 | Unhealthy | 99 | 7 of 24 |
| Tuesday, 20 October 2026 | 151 | Unhealthy | 103 | 12 of 24 |
| Monday, 19 October 2026 | 160 | Unhealthy | 122 | 23 of 24 |
| Sunday, 18 October 2026 | 170 | Unhealthy | 105 | 9 of 24 |
| Saturday, 17 October 2026 | 108 | Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups | 93 | 5 of 24 |
| Friday, 16 October 2026 | 128 | Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups | 106 | 16 of 24 |
Monitoring stations in Pulau Pinang
Every station inside the state boundary that has published recently. The headline figure above is the highest of these, never an average.
| Station | AQI | Band | Reading taken |
|---|---|---|---|
| Perai, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia | 62 | Moderate | 12:00 pm |
| Seberang Jaya 2, Perai, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia | 33 | Good | 12:00 pm |
| DIS | 32 | Good | 12:40 pm |
| Minden, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia | 25 | Good | 12:00 pm |
| Perai | 24 | Good | 12:00 pm |
| Balik Pulau, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia | 14 | Good | 12:00 pm |
| Bandar Baru Air Putih (Botanica.Ct) | 9 | Good | 12:45 pm |
US EPA AQI scale (WAQI)
- Good 0–50
- Moderate 51–100
- Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups 101–150
- Unhealthy 151–200
- Very Unhealthy 201–300
- Hazardous 301+
- No current data
What drives air quality in Penang
Why this state’s readings move the way they do.
Penang is two quite different places sharing one state boundary: the island, where sea breezes tend to move air through George Town and Bayan Lepas, and Seberang Perai on the mainland, where the Prai industrial belt and the north–south traffic corridor sit. Readings on the two sides of the channel do not always agree.
Main local sources
- Industrial activity in the Prai and Bayan Lepas industrial zones
- Dense traffic through George Town, Butterworth and the bridges
- Transboundary haze arriving from the southwest across the Strait
- Port and shipping emissions in the channel
How the year runs here
Penang is squarely in the path of the southwest monsoon haze corridor between June and September. Outside that window its readings are generally set by its own traffic and industry.
Readings on this page cover George Town, Butterworth, Bayan Lepas, Seberang Perai and Bukit Mertajam, to the extent that stations in those areas are reporting. Each figure is named with the station it came from, so you can judge how close it is to you.
Jerebu and haze in Penang
When the air here crosses into unhealthy territory, we write it up.
We publish a dated bulletin for every day on which any Malaysian state reaches AQI 101 or above — the point at which health advice starts naming who should stay indoors. The bulletins are built from the same hourly archive as the charts above, so they record what the stations actually read rather than restating a headline.
Penang has had 9 such days in the last 13.
Read the haze bulletins →Air quality in Penang: common questions
Asked about this state specifically.
Is air quality on Penang island different from the mainland?
Frequently, yes. The island gets more sea breeze, while Seberang Perai has the Prai industrial belt and the main north–south traffic corridor. Both are in Pulau Pinang, and the figure here is whichever station in the state is currently reading highest — we name it so you can tell which side of the channel it is on.
Should I search for Penang or Pulau Pinang?
They are the same state. Pulau Pinang is the official Malay name and the one used on the map; Penang is the common English name. This page covers both.
For how the index is calculated, why it differs from Malaysia’s official API, and where the data comes from, see the national air quality page.
Air quality elsewhere in Malaysia
Live readings for every other state and territory.
Readings from the World Air Quality Index project, on the US EPA scale. This is not Malaysia’s official Air Pollutant Index — for that, see APIMS from the Department of Environment. State boundaries from geoBoundaries (ADM1, CC BY 4.0).