Bad Air Days in Bucks County, Pennsylvania: 8 a Year
8 bad air days a year
More bad air days than three quarters of monitored counties. Ranked 118 of 996 monitored counties, where 1 is worst.
What makes them bad: mostly ozone: summer smog (0% particle days).
When the bad days come in Bucks
- J
- F
- M
- A
- M
- J
- J
- A
- S
- O
- N
- D
Most bad days here fall in July and June and August. Averaged over 2016 to 2025.
What actually helps here
- Ozone drives many bad days here. Purifiers and filters do not remove ozone, so do not buy one for that. Ozone peaks on hot afternoons: exercise outside in the morning.
Better or worse than it was
In 2000 to 2009 this county averaged 27 bad days a year; in 2016 to 2025, 8. The air has improved. The worst recent year was 2018, with 12 bad days on 333 monitored days.
| Date | AQI | Main pollutant |
|---|---|---|
| 2023-06-02 | 200 | Ozone |
| 2018-07-02 | 164 | Ozone |
| 2018-07-09 | 151 | Ozone |
| 2018-07-16 | 151 | Ozone |
| 2024-06-26 | 150 | Ozone |
Most days, not the worst ones
Across 3,259 monitored days from 2016 to 2025, the air in Bucks County rated Good on 86% of them, more often than the 72% typical of monitored counties, and Moderate on 12%. The median day sat at AQI 36; one day in ten went above 61.
The pollutant setting the AQI on an ordinary day here:
- ozone98%3,190 days
- nitrogen dioxide2%69 days
Year by year
| Year | Days monitored | Good | Moderate | Over 100 | Over 150 | Median AQI | Highest AQI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025* | 362 | 312 | 46 | 4 | 0 | 36 | 136 |
| 2024 | 356 | 293 | 53 | 10 | 0 | 36 | 150 |
| 2023 | 296 | 241 | 50 | 5 | 1 | 39 | 200 |
| 2022 | 237 | 196 | 39 | 2 | 0 | 41 | 119 |
| 2021 | 283 | 239 | 34 | 10 | 0 | 37 | 143 |
| 2020 | 351 | 331 | 16 | 4 | 0 | 33 | 115 |
| 2019 | 357 | 318 | 36 | 3 | 0 | 35 | 136 |
| 2018 | 333 | 288 | 33 | 12 | 3 | 33 | 164 |
| 2017 | 335 | 289 | 34 | 12 | 0 | 34 | 143 |
| 2016 | 349 | 300 | 40 | 9 | 0 | 34 | 147 |
| 2015 | 362 | 155 | 190 | 17 | 1 | 53 | 164 |
| 2014 | 365 | 146 | 211 | 8 | 1 | 54 | 172 |
| 2013 | 365 | 163 | 188 | 14 | 0 | 52 | 128 |
| 2012 | 363 | 136 | 203 | 24 | 1 | 55 | 161 |
| 2011 | 365 | 120 | 232 | 13 | 2 | 55 | 157 |
| 2010 | 365 | 159 | 182 | 24 | 4 | 54 | 190 |
*2025 may be a partial year in EPA's file.
Pennsylvania compared
- Allegheny County12/yr
- Philadelphia County9/yr
- Warren Countythin data
- Lancaster County6/yr
- Berks County5/yr
- Delaware County4/yr
- Northampton County4/yr
- Montgomery County4/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.