Bad Air Days in Macon County, North Carolina: under 1 a Year
under 1 bad air days a year
Rare: among the cleanest-air counties EPA monitors. Ranked 944 of 996 monitored counties, where 1 is worst.
What makes them bad: mostly ozone: summer smog (0% particle days).
Which months to watch
- J
- F
- M
- A
- M
- J
- J
- A
- S
- O
- N
- D
Most bad days here fall in April. 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 Macon
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 2016, with 1 bad day on 345 monitored days.
| Date | AQI | Main pollutant |
|---|---|---|
| 2016-04-20 | 101 | Ozone |
| 2022-05-18 | 97 | Ozone |
| 2025-04-18 | 97 | Ozone |
| 2018-04-12 | 93 | Ozone |
| 2023-04-20 | 93 | Ozone |
An ordinary day in Macon
Across 3,556 monitored days from 2016 to 2025, the air in Macon County rated Good on 96% of them, more often than the 72% typical of monitored counties, and Moderate on 4%. The median day sat at AQI 32; one day in ten went above 45.
The pollutant setting the AQI on an ordinary day here:
- ozone100%3,556 days
Every recent year on file
| Year | Days monitored | Good | Moderate | Over 100 | Over 150 | Median AQI | Highest AQI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025* | 348 | 336 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 32 | 97 |
| 2024 | 362 | 348 | 14 | 0 | 0 | 34 | 71 |
| 2023 | 361 | 342 | 19 | 0 | 0 | 34 | 93 |
| 2022 | 360 | 349 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 31 | 97 |
| 2021 | 359 | 347 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 30 | 67 |
| 2020 | 360 | 358 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 29 | 64 |
| 2019 | 358 | 343 | 15 | 0 | 0 | 33 | 87 |
| 2018 | 356 | 340 | 16 | 0 | 0 | 31 | 93 |
| 2017 | 347 | 335 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 33 | 74 |
| 2016 | 345 | 321 | 23 | 1 | 0 | 35 | 101 |
| 2015 | 352 | 335 | 17 | 0 | 0 | 32 | 80 |
| 2014 | 355 | 333 | 22 | 0 | 0 | 32 | 84 |
| 2013 | 346 | 330 | 16 | 0 | 0 | 32 | 84 |
| 2012 | 354 | 334 | 20 | 0 | 0 | 35 | 90 |
| 2011 | 328 | 296 | 32 | 0 | 0 | 38 | 97 |
| 2010 | 356 | 323 | 31 | 2 | 0 | 36 | 129 |
*2025 may be a partial year in EPA's file.
North Carolina compared
- Mecklenburg County4/yr
- Jackson Countythin data
- Forsyth County2/yr
- Union County2/yr
- Swain County2/yr
- Haywood County2/yr
- Graham County1/yr
- Guilford 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, and on why a purifier does not touch ozone in smoke vs ozone.