Bad Air Days in Pike County, Kentucky: under 1 a Year

under 1 bad air day a year

Rare: among the cleanest-air counties EPA monitors. Ranked 782 of 996 monitored counties, where 1 is worst.

What makes them bad: mostly particles: smoke and dust (100% particle days).

The bad-air season here

Most bad days here fall in November and June and December. 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.

The record for Pike

In 2000 to 2009 this county averaged 9 bad days a year; in 2016 to 2025, under 1. The air has improved. The worst recent year was 2016, with 3 bad days on 366 monitored days.

Date	AQI	Main pollutant
2021-12-15	164	PM2.5
2023-06-28	127	PM2.5
2023-06-29	127	PM2.5
2016-11-08	126	PM2.5
2016-11-18	117	PM2.5

An ordinary day in Pike

Across 3,611 monitored days from 2016 to 2025, the air in Pike County rated Good on 75% of them, close to the 72% typical of monitored counties, and Moderate on 24%. The median day sat at AQI 41; one day in ten went above 56.

The pollutant setting the AQI on an ordinary day here:

fine particles (PM2.5)71%2,562 days
ozone29%1,049 days

Every recent year on file

Year	Days monitored	Good	Moderate	Over 100	Over 150	Median AQI	Highest AQI
2025*	365	322	43	0	0	34	77
2024	337	285	52	0	0	38	79
2023	364	286	76	2	0	39	127
2022	365	296	69	0	0	39	92
2021	365	273	91	1	1	41	164
2020	365	310	55	0	0	37	93
2019	361	286	75	0	0	41	68
2018	359	272	87	0	0	41	84
2017	364	203	161	0	0	47	77
2016	366	188	175	3	0	49	126
2015	365	153	212	0	0	52	97
2014	365	179	185	1	0	51	104
2013	356	217	137	2	0	46	130
2012	361	206	152	3	0	47	147
2011	363	181	182	0	0	51	98
2010	345	195	148	2	0	47	105

*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.