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

under 1 bad air days a year

Rare: among the cleanest-air counties EPA monitors. Ranked 867 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 June 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 Pulaski

In 2000 to 2009 this county averaged 11 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 363 monitored days.

Date	AQI	Main pollutant
2023-06-29	120	PM2.5
2023-06-28	107	PM2.5
2021-07-21	101	PM2.5
2023-07-17	100	PM2.5
2023-07-16	94	PM2.5

Most days, not the worst ones

Across 3,221 monitored days from 2016 to 2025, the air in Pulaski County rated Good on 78% of them, more often than the 72% typical of monitored counties, and Moderate on 22%. 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)51%1,649 days
ozone49%1,572 days

Every recent year on file

Year	Days monitored	Good	Moderate	Over 100	Median AQI	Highest AQI
2025*	365	297	68	0	40	73
2024	366	292	74	0	41	68
2023	363	232	129	2	45	120
2022	359	259	100	0	42	82
2021	361	229	131	1	45	101
2020	283	246	37	0	38	77
2019	282	251	31	0	41	67
2018	282	224	58	0	39	74
2017	282	243	39	0	40	77
2016	278	224	54	0	41	90
2015	263	211	52	0	39	80
2014	286	203	83	0	43	100
2013	285	226	59	0	42	80
2012	277	191	81	5	44	133
2011	304	157	143	4	50	144
2010	298	224	74	0	44	100

*2025 may be a partial year in EPA's file.

Kentucky compared

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.