Bad Air Days in Ford County, Kansas: under 1 a Year
under 1 bad air day a year
Fewer bad air days than most monitored US counties. Ranked 740 of 996 monitored counties, where 1 is worst.
What makes them bad: mostly particles: smoke and dust (100% particle days).
Which months to watch
- J
- F
- M
- A
- M
- J
- J
- A
- S
- O
- N
- D
Most bad days here fall in March and February and April and October and December. 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.
The record for Ford
The worst recent year was 2022, with 2 bad days on 362 monitored days.
| Date | AQI | Main pollutant |
|---|---|---|
| 2017-03-23 | 187 | PM10 |
| 2022-12-02 | 169 | PM10 |
| 2023-02-21 | 147 | PM10 |
| 2018-04-17 | 129 | PM10 |
| 2025-03-14 | 115 | PM10 |
An ordinary day in Ford
Across 3,446 monitored days from 2016 to 2025, the air in Ford County rated Good on 95% of them, more often than the 72% typical of monitored counties, and Moderate on 5%. The median day sat at AQI 18; one day in ten went above 38.
The pollutant setting the AQI on an ordinary day here:
- coarse dust (PM10)85%2,936 days
- fine particles (PM2.5)15%510 days
Year by year
| Year | Days monitored | Good | Moderate | Over 100 | Over 150 | Median AQI | Highest AQI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025* | 362 | 325 | 36 | 1 | 0 | 28 | 115 |
| 2024 | 366 | 317 | 49 | 0 | 0 | 26 | 80 |
| 2023 | 308 | 289 | 18 | 1 | 0 | 15 | 147 |
| 2022 | 362 | 339 | 21 | 2 | 1 | 19 | 169 |
| 2021 | 358 | 353 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 17 | 80 |
| 2020 | 302 | 297 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 79 |
| 2019 | 304 | 301 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 15 | 54 |
| 2018 | 354 | 325 | 28 | 1 | 0 | 17 | 129 |
| 2017 | 364 | 360 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 16 | 187 |
| 2016 | 366 | 360 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 16 | 67 |
| 2015 | 330 | 324 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 13 | 64 |
| 2014 | 365 | 362 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 69 |
| 2013 | 365 | 364 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 54 |
| 2012 | 366 | 365 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 94 |
| 2011 | 350 | 344 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 14 | 63 |
| 2010 | 365 | 365 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 14 | 49 |
*2025 may be a partial year in EPA's file.
Kansas compared
- Wyandotte County5/yr
- Shawnee County2/yr
- Sedgwick County2/yr
- Trego County2/yr
- Sumner County2/yr
- Johnson County2/yr
- Neosho County1/yr
- Douglas 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.