Bad Air Days in Avery County, North Carolina: under 1 a Year
under 1 bad air days a year
Rare: among the cleanest-air counties EPA monitors. Ranked 834 of 996 monitored counties, where 1 is worst.
What makes them bad: mostly ozone: summer smog (25% particle days).
The bad-air season here
- J
- F
- M
- A
- M
- J
- J
- A
- S
- O
- N
- D
Most bad days here fall in April and June and 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.
Better or worse than it was
In 2000 to 2009 this county averaged 13 bad days a year; in 2016 to 2025, under 1. The air has improved. The worst recent year was 2016, with 4 bad days on 358 monitored days.
| Date | AQI | Main pollutant |
|---|---|---|
| 2016-11-23 | 149 | PM2.5 |
| 2016-04-19 | 108 | Ozone |
| 2016-04-20 | 105 | Ozone |
| 2016-06-11 | 105 | Ozone |
| 2023-07-17 | 98 | PM2.5 |
The air on a normal day
Across 3,275 monitored days from 2016 to 2025, the air in Avery County rated Good on 91% of them, more often than the 72% typical of monitored counties, and Moderate on 9%. The median day sat at AQI 39; one day in ten went above 50.
The pollutant setting the AQI on an ordinary day here:
- ozone90%2,955 days
- fine particles (PM2.5)10%320 days
Every recent year on file
| Year | Days monitored | Good | Moderate | Over 100 | Over 150 | Median AQI | Highest AQI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025* | 258 | 238 | 20 | 0 | 0 | 38 | 90 |
| 2024 | 245 | 222 | 23 | 0 | 0 | 38 | 90 |
| 2023 | 283 | 246 | 37 | 0 | 0 | 39 | 98 |
| 2022 | 321 | 297 | 24 | 0 | 0 | 38 | 77 |
| 2021 | 364 | 331 | 33 | 0 | 0 | 40 | 74 |
| 2020 | 366 | 350 | 16 | 0 | 0 | 38 | 80 |
| 2019 | 363 | 333 | 30 | 0 | 0 | 40 | 77 |
| 2018 | 357 | 319 | 38 | 0 | 0 | 38 | 87 |
| 2017 | 360 | 327 | 33 | 0 | 0 | 40 | 93 |
| 2016 | 358 | 308 | 46 | 4 | 0 | 42 | 149 |
| 2015 | 353 | 306 | 47 | 0 | 0 | 41 | 90 |
| 2014 | 363 | 318 | 45 | 0 | 0 | 40 | 90 |
| 2013 | 363 | 321 | 42 | 0 | 0 | 40 | 93 |
| 2012 | 364 | 307 | 54 | 3 | 0 | 42 | 143 |
| 2011 | 362 | 286 | 76 | 0 | 0 | 43 | 84 |
| 2010 | 362 | 266 | 89 | 7 | 0 | 44 | 122 |
*2025 may be a partial year in EPA's file.
Nearby counties on file
- Mecklenburg County4/yr
- Jackson Countythin data
- Forsyth County2/yr
- Union County2/yr
- Swain County2/yr
- Haywood County2/yr
- Graham County1/yr
- Guilford County1/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, and on why a purifier does not touch ozone in smoke vs ozone.