Air quality in Sabah right now
Highest station AQI
63Unusually sensitive people should consider limiting long outdoor exertion.
- Measured at
- Keningau, Sabah, Malaysia
- Reading taken
- 12:00 pm
- Stations reporting
- 6 of 6
- Latest day vs previous
- Down 34 from 135
As of 28 Oct, 12:00 pm MYT, the highest reporting monitoring station in Sabah recorded a US EPA Air Quality Index of 63, which is Moderate. The reading came from Keningau, Sabah, Malaysia, with 6 of 6 stations in the region reporting. This is not Malaysia's official Air Pollutant Index.
Sabah’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 Sabah 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 Sabah on each day, Malaysian time. Days with no reporting station are absent rather than shown as zero.
The worst reading we hold for Sabah is 222 on Friday, 16 October 2026. In the last 13 days, 13 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 | 101 | Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups | 73 | 1 of 13 |
| Tuesday, 27 October 2026 | 135 | Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups | 86 | 6 of 23 |
| Monday, 26 October 2026 | 158 | Unhealthy | 91 | 7 of 24 |
| Sunday, 25 October 2026 | 202 | Very Unhealthy | 107 | 7 of 24 |
| Saturday, 24 October 2026 | 216 | Very Unhealthy | 145 | 21 of 24 |
| Friday, 23 October 2026 | 176 | Unhealthy | 137 | 19 of 24 |
| Thursday, 22 October 2026 | 173 | Unhealthy | 134 | 18 of 24 |
| Wednesday, 21 October 2026 | 170 | Unhealthy | 140 | 21 of 24 |
| Tuesday, 20 October 2026 | 191 | Unhealthy | 145 | 18 of 24 |
| Monday, 19 October 2026 | 198 | Unhealthy | 138 | 18 of 24 |
| Sunday, 18 October 2026 | 187 | Unhealthy | 161 | 24 of 24 |
| Saturday, 17 October 2026 | 217 | Very Unhealthy | 169 | 24 of 24 |
| Friday, 16 October 2026 | 222 | Very Unhealthy | 172 | 23 of 23 |
Monitoring stations in Sabah
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Keningau, Sabah, Malaysia | 63 | Moderate | 12:00 pm |
| MCAQM003, station | 60 | Moderate | 12:00 pm |
| Sandakan, Sabah, Malaysia | 56 | Moderate | 12:00 pm |
| Tawau, Sabah, Malaysia | 54 | Moderate | 12:00 pm |
| Kimanis, Sabah, Malaysia | 44 | Good | 12:00 pm |
| Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia | 38 | Good | 12:00 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 Sabah
Why this state’s readings move the way they do.
Sabah sits at the northern end of Borneo, well away from the Sumatran fires that drive haze on the peninsula, and it generally has a lower baseline than the west coast states. Its exposure, when it comes, is from Kalimantan to the southwest — and the state is big enough that Kota Kinabalu, Sandakan and Tawau can be having entirely different days.
Main local sources
- Smoke from fires in Kalimantan during severe regional episodes
- Local land clearing and plantation burning in dry spells
- Traffic and port activity around Kota Kinabalu
- Sheltered inland valleys where smoke can settle
How the year runs here
Sabah’s rainfall pattern differs from the peninsula’s and it is less consistently affected by the June–September haze window. Severe Kalimantan fire seasons are when its readings are most likely to climb.
Readings on this page cover Kota Kinabalu, Sandakan, Tawau, Lahad Datu and Keningau, 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 Sabah
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.
Sabah has had 13 such days in the last 13.
Read the haze bulletins →Air quality in Sabah: common questions
Asked about this state specifically.
Does haze reach Sabah?
Less often than the peninsula, and usually from a different source — fires in Kalimantan rather than Sumatra. In severe regional fire seasons Sabah does see elevated readings, but it is commonly among the cleaner parts of the country during a typical west coast haze episode.
Is one figure meaningful across a state this size?
Sabah is roughly the size of Ireland and its stations can be hundreds of kilometres apart, so the honest answer is that it is a summary, not a local reading. We show the highest reporting station and name it, along with how many stations are reporting, precisely so a single number is not mistaken for statewide coverage.
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).