Bad Air Days in Apache County, Arizona: under 1 a Year
under 1 bad air days a year
Rare: among the cleanest-air counties EPA monitors. Ranked 948 of 996 monitored counties, where 1 is worst.
What makes them bad: mostly particles: smoke and dust (100% particle days).
Which months to watch
- J
- F
- M
- A
- M
- J
- J
- A
- S
- O
- N
- D
Most bad days here fall in November. Averaged over 2016 to 2025.
What to buy, and what not to
- Bad air days are rare here. A standard furnace filter is enough; no purifier needed for outdoor air.
- On the odd bad day, check AirNow and keep windows shut.
The worst days on file
In 2000 to 2009 this county averaged under 1 bad days a year; in 2016 to 2025, under 1. Not much has changed. The worst recent year was 2023, with 1 bad day on 365 monitored days.
| Date | AQI | Main pollutant |
|---|---|---|
| 2023-11-11 | 106 | PM10 |
| 2025-05-15 | 100 | Ozone |
| 2021-08-08 | 90 | PM2.5 |
| 2025-05-29 | 80 | Ozone |
| 2025-04-12 | 77 | Ozone |
Most days, not the worst ones
Across 3,614 monitored days from 2016 to 2025, the air in Apache County rated Good on 98% of them, more often than the 72% typical of monitored counties, and Moderate on 2%. The median day sat at AQI 15; one day in ten went above 30.
The pollutant setting the AQI on an ordinary day here:
- coarse dust (PM10)80%2,884 days
- fine particles (PM2.5)15%546 days
- ozone5%184 days
Every recent year on file
| Year | Days monitored | Good | Moderate | Over 100 | Over 150 | Median AQI | Highest AQI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025* | 363 | 313 | 50 | 0 | 0 | 33 | 100 |
| 2024 | 352 | 350 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 14 | 57 |
| 2023 | 365 | 362 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 13 | 106 |
| 2022 | 363 | 359 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 57 |
| 2021 | 359 | 353 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 15 | 90 |
| 2020 | 364 | 356 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 14 | 63 |
| 2019 | 359 | 357 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 64 |
| 2018 | 358 | 354 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 13 | 58 |
| 2017 | 365 | 361 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 14 | 62 |
| 2016 | 366 | 362 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 14 | 56 |
| 2015 | 361 | 361 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 46 |
| 2014 | 365 | 360 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 14 | 71 |
| 2013 | 357 | 356 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 13 | 52 |
| 2012 | 354 | 349 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 17 | 61 |
| 2011 | 364 | 361 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 15 | 56 |
| 2010 | 360 | 360 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 14 | 49 |
*2025 may be a partial year in EPA's file.
Elsewhere in Arizona
- Maricopa County89/yr
- Pinal County53/yr
- Gila County14/yr
- Pima County9/yr
- Yuma County9/yr
- Santa Cruz County3/yr
- Cochise County3/yr
- La Paz County2/yr
How this is counted
A bad air day is a day the county's daily AQI from EPA AirData went above 100, the level where EPA tells children, older adults and people with asthma or heart disease to cut back outdoors. Monitors do not run every day, so yearly counts are scaled to 365 days. This is the record, not today's air: for that, check AirNow. More on the method in how the county numbers are made, on the AQI 100 line in what counts as a bad air day.