Bad Air Days in Colbert County, Alabama: under 1 a Year

under 1 bad air days a year

Rare: among the cleanest-air counties EPA monitors. Ranked 873 of 996 monitored counties, where 1 is worst.

What makes them bad: mostly ozone: summer smog (0% particle days).

Which months to watch

Most bad days here fall in June. 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 8 bad days a year; in 2016 to 2025, under 1. The air has improved. The worst recent year was 2016, with 1 bad day on 282 monitored days.

Date	AQI	Main pollutant
2016-06-10	115	Ozone
2018-06-08	93	Ozone
2016-11-14	83	PM2.5
2018-06-07	80	Ozone
2016-05-23	74	Ozone

Most days, not the worst ones

Across 1,105 monitored days from 2016 to 2019, the air in Colbert County rated Good on 87% of them, more often than the 72% typical of monitored counties, and Moderate on 13%. The median day sat at AQI 39; one day in ten went above 52.

The pollutant setting the AQI on an ordinary day here:

ozone72%798 days
fine particles (PM2.5)28%307 days

Every recent year on file

Year	Days monitored	Good	Moderate	Over 100	Median AQI	Highest AQI
2019	263	238	25	0	38	65
2018	277	235	42	0	37	93
2017	283	244	39	0	39	67
2016	282	241	40	1	41	115
2015	280	221	59	0	39	76
2014	284	224	60	0	39	87
2013	285	225	60	0	40	80
2012	283	204	73	6	43	136
2011	279	189	89	1	44	101
2010	355	124	230	1	54	105

Elsewhere in Alabama

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.