Bad Air Days in Ottawa County, Oklahoma: 4 a Year
4 bad air days a year
About the middle of monitored US counties. Ranked 256 of 996 monitored counties, where 1 is worst.
What makes them bad: mostly particles: smoke and dust (70% particle days).
When the bad days come in Ottawa
- J
- F
- M
- A
- M
- J
- J
- A
- S
- O
- N
- D
Most bad days here fall in March and July and June and August. Averaged over 2016 to 2025.
What to buy, and what not to
- Particles (wildfire smoke, dust) cause enough bad days here to matter. A HEPA purifier sized to your bedroom removes them; run it with windows shut on bad days.
- Upgrade the furnace or AC filter to MERV 13 so the whole house is filtered, not just one room.
Better or worse than it was
In 2000 to 2009 this county averaged 11 bad days a year; in 2016 to 2025, 4. The air has improved. The worst recent year was 2021, with 17 bad days on 365 monitored days.
| Date | AQI | Main pollutant |
|---|---|---|
| 2025-03-14 | 305 | PM10 |
| 2024-07-16 | 288 | Ozone |
| 2022-10-29 | 238 | Ozone |
| 2022-01-23 | 185 | PM2.5 |
| 2022-01-22 | 183 | PM2.5 |
Most days, not the worst ones
Across 3,636 monitored days from 2016 to 2025, the air in Ottawa County rated Good on 47% of them, less often than the 72% typical of monitored counties, and Moderate on 52%. The median day sat at AQI 51; one day in ten went above 69.
The pollutant setting the AQI on an ordinary day here:
- fine particles (PM2.5)78%2,839 days
- ozone19%694 days
- coarse dust (PM10)3%103 days
Year by year
| Year | Days monitored | Good | Moderate | Over 100 | Over 150 | Median AQI | Highest AQI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025* | 365 | 196 | 167 | 2 | 1 | 49 | 305 |
| 2024 | 366 | 181 | 184 | 1 | 1 | 51 | 288 |
| 2023 | 364 | 141 | 215 | 8 | 1 | 54 | 162 |
| 2022 | 365 | 151 | 203 | 11 | 5 | 53 | 238 |
| 2021 | 365 | 90 | 258 | 17 | 3 | 59 | 169 |
| 2020 | 352 | 202 | 148 | 2 | 1 | 46 | 154 |
| 2019 | 363 | 222 | 140 | 1 | 0 | 45 | 104 |
| 2018 | 365 | 156 | 208 | 1 | 0 | 52 | 107 |
| 2017 | 365 | 175 | 190 | 0 | 0 | 51 | 94 |
| 2016 | 366 | 206 | 160 | 0 | 0 | 47 | 81 |
| 2015 | 364 | 186 | 178 | 0 | 0 | 50 | 89 |
| 2014 | 364 | 185 | 178 | 1 | 0 | 50 | 118 |
| 2013 | 364 | 215 | 148 | 1 | 0 | 46 | 108 |
| 2012 | 363 | 143 | 203 | 17 | 2 | 53 | 161 |
| 2011 | 365 | 152 | 197 | 16 | 0 | 53 | 143 |
| 2010 | 361 | 169 | 189 | 3 | 0 | 51 | 119 |
*2025 may be a partial year in EPA's file.
Elsewhere in Oklahoma
- Love County10/yr
- Tulsa County6/yr
- Oklahoma County6/yr
- Jefferson County5/yr
- McClain County5/yr
- Carter County4/yr
- Washington County4/yr
- Cleveland County3/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.