Bad Air Days in Burleigh County, North Dakota: 7 a Year

7 bad air days a year

More bad air days than three quarters of monitored counties. Ranked 145 of 996 monitored counties, where 1 is worst.

What makes them bad: mostly particles: smoke and dust (88% particle days).

The bad-air season here

Most bad days here fall in August and July and September and June. Averaged over 2016 to 2025.

What to buy, and what not to

Particles (wildfire smoke, dust) cause enough bad days here to matter. A HEPA purifier sized to your bedroom removes them; run it with windows shut on bad days.
Upgrade the furnace or AC filter to MERV 13 so the whole house is filtered, not just one room.

Better or worse than it was

In 2000 to 2009 this county averaged under 1 bad days a year; in 2016 to 2025, 7. It has got worse. The worst recent year was 2023, with 22 bad days on 365 monitored days.

Date	AQI	Main pollutant
2023-05-17	272	PM2.5
2017-09-13	222	PM2.5
2025-05-31	218	PM2.5
2025-06-01	188	PM2.5
2025-06-11	186	PM2.5

The air on a normal day

Across 3,624 monitored days from 2016 to 2025, the air in Burleigh County rated Good on 76% of them, more often than the 72% typical of monitored counties, and Moderate on 22%. The median day sat at AQI 38; one day in ten went above 61.

The pollutant setting the AQI on an ordinary day here:

fine particles (PM2.5)53%1,917 days
ozone44%1,611 days
nitrogen dioxide1%47 days
coarse dust (PM10)1%44 days

Every recent year on file

Year	Days monitored	Good	Moderate	Over 100	Over 150	Median AQI	Highest AQI
2025*	365	285	68	12	4	39	218
2024	366	268	88	10	1	39	174
2023	365	225	118	22	8	42	272
2022	365	260	105	0	0	39	99
2021	365	265	83	17	5	38	183
2020	366	302	64	0	0	37	77
2019	365	299	66	0	0	36	90
2018	365	247	114	4	2	41	153
2017	365	282	80	3	1	39	222
2016	337	320	16	1	0	31	117
2015	365	301	58	6	1	37	156
2014	365	316	48	1	0	36	113
2013	365	296	69	0	0	39	84
2012	366	283	83	0	0	40	72
2011	363	303	60	0	0	38	76
2010	362	250	112	0	0	42	90

*2025 may be a partial year in EPA's file.

Nearby counties on file

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.