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

under 1 bad air days a year

Rare: among the cleanest-air counties EPA monitors. Ranked 918 of 996 monitored counties, where 1 is worst.

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

Which months to watch

Most bad days here fall in April and July. 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 Pitt

In 2000 to 2009 this county averaged 19 bad days a year; in 2016 to 2025, under 1. The air has improved. The worst recent year was 2023, with 2 bad days on 365 monitored days.

Date	AQI	Main pollutant
2023-07-18	118	PM2.5
2023-04-22	111	PM2.5
2016-06-12	100	Ozone
2016-04-19	97	Ozone
2022-06-22	97	Ozone

Most days, not the worst ones

Across 3,518 monitored days from 2016 to 2025, the air in Pitt County rated Good on 79% of them, more often than the 72% typical of monitored counties, and Moderate on 21%. The median day sat at AQI 39; one day in ten went above 55.

The pollutant setting the AQI on an ordinary day here:

fine particles (PM2.5)60%2,107 days
ozone40%1,411 days

Pitt County by year

Year	Days monitored	Good	Moderate	Over 100	Over 150	Median AQI	Highest AQI
2025*	365	321	44	0	0	37	71
2024	352	302	50	0	0	37	74
2023	365	256	107	2	0	42	118
2022	365	305	60	0	0	37	97
2021	360	288	72	0	0	39	81
2020	361	313	48	0	0	36	95
2019	352	271	81	0	0	41	87
2018	345	259	86	0	0	41	87
2017	365	252	113	0	0	43	87
2016	288	206	82	0	0	42	100
2015	258	212	46	0	0	41	80
2014	256	202	54	0	0	41	93
2013	262	219	43	0	0	37	100
2012	254	194	56	4	1	42	177
2011	259	160	92	7	0	47	136
2010	257	159	95	3	0	47	136

*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.