Bad Air Days in Columbia County, Florida: under 1 a Year

under 1 bad air days a year

Rare: among the cleanest-air counties EPA monitors. Ranked 840 of 996 monitored counties, where 1 is worst.

What makes them bad: mostly particles: smoke and dust (100% particle days).

When the bad days come in Columbia

Most bad days here fall in June and January. Averaged over 2016 to 2025.

What actually helps here

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 4 bad days a year; in 2016 to 2025, under 1. The air has improved. The worst recent year was 2020, with 3 bad days on 311 monitored days.

Date	AQI	Main pollutant
2020-06-26	160	PM2.5
2020-06-27	156	PM2.5
2018-01-19	111	PM2.5
2020-06-25	102	PM2.5
2017-05-09	100	Ozone

Most days, not the worst ones

Across 3,545 monitored days from 2016 to 2025, the air in Columbia County rated Good on 64% of them, less often than the 72% typical of monitored counties, and Moderate on 36%. The median day sat at AQI 45; one day in ten went above 60.

The pollutant setting the AQI on an ordinary day here:

fine particles (PM2.5)73%2,574 days
ozone27%971 days

Year by year

Year	Days monitored	Good	Moderate	Over 100	Over 150	Median AQI	Highest AQI
2025*	365	209	156	0	0	48	80
2024	349	220	129	0	0	44	93
2023	363	212	151	0	0	47	92
2022	363	234	129	0	0	45	91
2021	364	236	128	0	0	44	77
2020	311	197	111	3	2	44	160
2019	363	229	134	0	0	46	90
2018	359	267	91	1	0	41	111
2017	363	237	126	0	0	45	100
2016	345	235	110	0	0	43	90
2015	321	249	72	0	0	39	77
2014	338	287	51	0	0	36	82
2013	364	214	150	0	0	47	89
2012	365	267	96	2	1	38	154
2011	365	169	195	1	0	52	112
2010	361	147	213	1	0	52	101

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

Elsewhere in Florida

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.