Bad Air Days in Ottawa County, Michigan: 5 a Year
5 bad air days a year
More bad air days than three quarters of monitored counties. Ranked 230 of 996 monitored counties, where 1 is worst.
What makes them bad: mostly ozone: summer smog (31% particle days).
The bad-air season here
- J
- F
- M
- A
- M
- J
- J
- A
- S
- O
- N
- D
Most bad days here fall in June and July. Averaged over 2016 to 2025.
What to buy, and what not to
- Ozone drives many bad days here. Purifiers and filters do not remove ozone, so do not buy one for that. Ozone peaks on hot afternoons: exercise outside in the morning.
The worst days on file
In 2000 to 2009 this county averaged 19 bad days a year; in 2016 to 2025, 5. The air has improved. The worst recent year was 2016, with 7 bad days on 166 monitored days.
| Date | AQI | Main pollutant |
|---|---|---|
| 2023-06-27 | 227 | PM2.5 |
| 2023-06-28 | 195 | PM2.5 |
| 2023-06-29 | 173 | PM2.5 |
| 2022-06-21 | 164 | Ozone |
| 2025-07-31 | 159 | PM2.5 |
The air on a normal day
Across 3,208 monitored days from 2016 to 2025, the air in Ottawa County rated Good on 70% of them, close to the 72% typical of monitored counties, and Moderate on 29%. The median day sat at AQI 42; one day in ten went above 66.
The pollutant setting the AQI on an ordinary day here:
- ozone54%1,730 days
- fine particles (PM2.5)41%1,309 days
- nitrogen dioxide5%157 days
Ottawa County by year
| Year | Days monitored | Good | Moderate | Over 100 | Over 150 | Median AQI | Highest AQI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025* | 365 | 260 | 97 | 8 | 1 | 40 | 159 |
| 2024 | 365 | 257 | 107 | 1 | 0 | 41 | 105 |
| 2023 | 356 | 176 | 172 | 8 | 3 | 51 | 227 |
| 2022 | 332 | 194 | 134 | 4 | 2 | 46 | 164 |
| 2021 | 365 | 186 | 175 | 4 | 0 | 49 | 108 |
| 2020 | 365 | 303 | 56 | 6 | 0 | 35 | 150 |
| 2019 | 360 | 300 | 60 | 0 | 0 | 37 | 100 |
| 2018 | 289 | 224 | 61 | 4 | 0 | 40 | 115 |
| 2017 | 245 | 205 | 40 | 0 | 0 | 40 | 97 |
| 2016 | 166 | 131 | 28 | 7 | 0 | 41 | 133 |
| 2015 | 161 | 133 | 27 | 1 | 0 | 42 | 122 |
| 2014 | 177 | 139 | 34 | 4 | 0 | 43 | 112 |
| 2013 | 243 | 164 | 77 | 2 | 0 | 43 | 115 |
| 2012 | 243 | 141 | 81 | 21 | 2 | 46 | 161 |
| 2011 | 242 | 161 | 74 | 7 | 3 | 43 | 156 |
| 2010 | 241 | 152 | 85 | 4 | 0 | 44 | 119 |
*2025 may be a partial year in EPA's file.
Nearby counties on file
- Wayne County11/yr
- Marquette County9/yr
- Muskegon County9/yr
- Allegan County9/yr
- Berrien County8/yr
- Macomb County7/yr
- Cass County6/yr
- Oakland County6/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.