Bad Air Days in Lincoln County, North Carolina: under 1 a Year

under 1 bad air days a year

Rare: among the cleanest-air counties EPA monitors. Ranked 828 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 Lincoln

Most bad days here fall in June and May. 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.

Better or worse than it was

In 2000 to 2009 this county averaged 44 bad days a year; in 2016 to 2025, under 1. The air has improved. The worst recent year was 2016, with 2 bad days on 211 monitored days.

Date	AQI	Main pollutant
2016-06-14	156	Ozone
2022-06-06	108	Ozone
2016-05-25	101	Ozone
2016-06-10	100	Ozone
2016-06-13	97	Ozone

Most days, not the worst ones

Across 2,375 monitored days from 2016 to 2025, the air in Lincoln County rated Good on 86% of them, more often than the 72% typical of monitored counties, and Moderate on 14%. The median day sat at AQI 41; one day in ten went above 56.

The pollutant setting the AQI on an ordinary day here:

ozone100%2,375 days

Every recent year on file

Year	Days monitored	Good	Moderate	Over 100	Over 150	Median AQI	Highest AQI
2025*	242	217	25	0	0	41	87
2024	243	223	20	0	0	40	80
2023	244	202	42	0	0	43	97
2022	243	202	40	1	0	43	108
2021	243	205	38	0	0	42	97
2020	243	241	2	0	0	35	71
2019	243	178	65	0	0	44	97
2018	225	184	41	0	0	41	90
2017	238	207	31	0	0	42	93
2016	211	173	36	2	1	44	156
2015	208	158	49	1	0	44	112
2014	212	181	29	2	0	42	108
2013	214	194	18	2	0	40	105
2012	213	142	64	7	1	46	154
2011	213	126	75	12	0	48	129
2010	212	130	74	8	0	46	143

*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, and on why a purifier does not touch ozone in smoke vs ozone.