UK Data: UK air quality (Defra) is answering right now. Last checked 9 min ago. It exposes 7 tools.
Live UK air pollution from Defra monitors: NO2, PM2.5, PM10, ozone and the Daily Air Quality Index
Uptime history
21 hours of history
21 hours agonow
100.0%
Uptime 24h
75 of 75 checks
7
Tools
read from the server
229 ms
Response time
average over 24h
open, no key
Access
streamable-http
Nothing serious here today
Today is the operative word: we check UK Data: UK air quality (Defra) every 15 minutes and re-read its code on every release. Watch it and you find out the day that stops being true.
Connect this server
Endpoint below is the one we actually reach during checks — not the one copied from a README. Last verified 9 min ago.
run in your terminal
claude mcp add air-quality --transport http https://ukdata.reliness.co.uk/mcp/air-qualitySettings → Connectors → Add custom connector, then paste this address
https://ukdata.reliness.co.uk/mcp/air-quality~/.codex/config.toml
[mcp_servers.air-quality]
url = "https://ukdata.reliness.co.uk/mcp/air-quality".cursor/mcp.json
{
"mcpServers": {
"air-quality": {
"url": "https://ukdata.reliness.co.uk/mcp/air-quality"
}
}
}.vscode/mcp.json
{
"servers": {
"air-quality": {
"type": "http",
"url": "https://ukdata.reliness.co.uk/mcp/air-quality"
}
}
}Available tools 7
Read directly from the server with tools/list, grouped by what they act on.
If a tool disappears, we record the date.
air
air_pollutant_history
Hourly readings of one pollutant at one Defra UK-AIR monitor over a period of 1 to 168 hours (7 days): up to 100 hourly rows are shown (the latest), while the minimum, maximum, mean, peak hour and daily means cover the whole period. For evidence and comparisons: councillors, campaigners, schools, journalists and researchers asking "when was pollution highest this week". Takes a timeseries_id or station_id from the other air quality tools. Data are provisional; this is not the ratified long-term archive. (cost: 1 credit)
air_quality_index_near
One answer to "what is the air quality near me today": the overall UK Daily Air Quality Index (1-10, Low, Moderate, High or Very High) with health advice, calculated from the latest NO2, ozone, PM2.5 and PM10 measurements at the nearest working Defra AURN monitors, and which pollutant drives it. Calculated with the Defra DAQI bands and averaging periods; it is not Defra's own published index or the air pollution forecast, and pollutants may come from different nearby sites. (cost: 1 credit)
air_quality_stations_near
Lists the official Defra AURN air quality monitoring sites near a UK point, nearest first, with the headline pollutants each currently measures (NO2, ozone, PM2.5, PM10). Every UK-AIR station id is checked against its latest reading and marked current, not_reporting or retired, so you know which id to pass to air_pollutant_history; sites with only retired records are left out. A starting point for "where is air pollution measured near me" for residents, schools, researchers and property buyers. Covers only the national automatic network, not local council diffusion tubes or low-cost sensors. (cost: 1 credit)
no2
no2_level_near
Latest hourly nitrogen dioxide (NO2) reading in ug/m3 at the nearest working Defra AURN monitor, with its Daily Air Quality Index band (1-10, Low to Very High) and health advice. NO2 is mainly traffic and diesel pollution, the UK's headline roadside pollutant, so this answers "how bad is the traffic pollution near me right now" for cyclists, parents on the school run and people with asthma. Source: Defra UK-AIR. A single monitor can be several km away and not represent your street. (cost: 1 credit)
ozone
ozone_level_near
Latest hourly ground-level ozone (O3) reading in ug/m3 at the nearest working Defra AURN monitor, plus its 8-hour mean and the Daily Air Quality Index band and health advice that mean gives. Ozone peaks on hot sunny days (summer smog), often higher in the countryside than in cities, so this suits runners and people with lung conditions in heatwaves. Source: Defra UK-AIR. Not a forecast. (cost: 1 credit)
pm10
pm10_level_near
Latest hourly coarse particulate (PM10) reading in ug/m3 at the nearest working Defra AURN monitor, plus its 24-hour mean and the Daily Air Quality Index band and health advice that mean gives. Useful for Saharan dust episodes, construction and road dust. Source: Defra UK-AIR. Not a forecast; one monitor may not represent your street. (cost: 1 credit)
pm25
pm25_level_near
Latest hourly fine particulate (PM2.5) reading in ug/m3 at the nearest working Defra AURN monitor, plus its 24-hour mean and the Daily Air Quality Index band and health advice that mean gives. PM2.5 is the pollutant most linked to health effects (smoke, wood burners, traffic, bonfire night), so this suits asthma and COPD sufferers, runners and parents. Source: Defra UK-AIR. Not a forecast; one monitor may not represent your street. (cost: 1 credit)
Endpoints
| URL | Transport | State | Latency | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| https://ukdata.reliness.co.uk/mcp/air-quality | streamable-http | answering | 83 ms | 9 min ago |
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UK Data: UK air quality (Defra) — questions
Answers built from our own checks of this server.
What can UK Data: UK air quality (Defra) do?
It exposes 7 tools, read directly from the server on our last check. Among them: air_pollutant_history, air_quality_index_near, air_quality_stations_near, no2_level_near, ozone_level_near, pm10_level_near and 1 more. The full list with descriptions is on this page — we take it from the server itself via tools/list, not from a README.
How MCP servers expose tools in the first place →
Is UK Data: UK air quality (Defra) working right now?
We send a real MCP handshake every 15 minutes. Over the last 24 hours 75 of 75 checks got a reply (100.0%), average response time 229 ms. The bar chart above shows every period we have measured.
How do I connect UK Data: UK air quality (Defra)?
Copy the ready config from this page. We generate it for Claude Code, Claude Desktop, Codex, Cursor and VS Code, each in the form that client actually reads. It is a remote server, so there is nothing to install — the client connects to the address.
Does UK Data: UK air quality (Defra) need an API key?
No. UK Data: UK air quality (Defra) completed a full MCP handshake with us as an anonymous client and listed its tools without asking for anything. All 7 of them are readable on this page. This is what we observed, not what the docs claim.
How fast is UK Data: UK air quality (Defra)?
It answers our handshake in 229 ms on average, which is faster than 63% of all working MCP servers we measure. The comparison comes from our own checks across the whole registry, every 15 minutes.