How Far Does The Smell Of Weed Travel? Indoors Vs Outdoors

“Is that skunk or just some super dank weed?”

You’ve likely heard this question tossed around when a strikingly familiar stench fills the air, leaving noses twitching and eyebrows raised.

Often, it’s the seasoned cannabis users who step in to determine if it’s a roadside critter or a top-shelf strain making its presence known.

If it is some stinky bud, exactly how far can you smell weed from its original source?

Let’s dive in.

Indoors, cannabis smoke tends to stick around until you air it out.

There aren’t exact measurements for how far the smoke travels, but you can bet that the dank aroma will fill up your space, making it pretty obvious you just smoked up.

The distance the smell travels can depend on a few factors, like the potency of the strain—the stronger it is, the more it spreads. Humidity also plays a role; the more humid the space, the longer that danky goodness will stick around.

If you’re smoking weed outside, the smell of weed can travel up to 25-30 feet, on average. But, on a windy day, the smell of cannabis smoke can travel up to 300-400 feet!

Raw cannabis, like the scent from an open jar or bag, doesn’t travel as far as smoke but can still attract attention, especially if someone is close by.

Cannabis has a skunky, earthy, musky smell thanks to aromatic compounds called terpenes. These are naturally present in many plants, fruits, and vegetables.

Over 200 terpenes are responsible for each strain’s unique scent and flavor in the cannabis plant alone.

The most popular terpenes in cannabis are:

• Myrcene
• Pinene
• Limonene
• Caryophyllene
• Linalool
• Ocimene
• Humulene
• Terpinolene

The intensity of the “weedy” smell varies across strains, largely influenced by the concentration of myrcene.

If you just opened a fresh pack of bud, then the notorious smell of cannabis is bound to escape and travel, thanks to all those rich terpenes. But if your stash is older, the terpene content will definitely have dropped, so the smell won’t be as strong or reach as far.