Bad Air Days in Rockbridge County, Virginia: under 1 a Year

under 1 bad air days a year

Rare: among the cleanest-air counties EPA monitors. Ranked 906 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 November. 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.

Better or worse than it was

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 2023, with 2 bad days on 284 monitored days.

Date	AQI	Main pollutant
2023-11-17	240	PM2.5
2023-11-20	171	PM2.5
2016-04-19	90	Ozone
2018-04-13	90	Ozone
2016-04-18	80	Ozone

An ordinary day in Rockbridge

Across 2,775 monitored days from 2016 to 2025, the air in Rockbridge County rated Good on 94% of them, more often than the 72% typical of monitored counties, and Moderate on 6%. The median day sat at AQI 35; one day in ten went above 47.

The pollutant setting the AQI on an ordinary day here:

ozone77%2,147 days
fine particles (PM2.5)23%628 days

Rockbridge County by year

Year	Days monitored	Good	Moderate	Over 100	Over 150	Median AQI	Highest AQI
2025*	264	248	16	0	0	36	67
2024	284	273	11	0	0	37	64
2023	284	261	21	2	2	37	240
2022	285	277	8	0	0	33	71
2021	283	267	16	0	0	34	64
2020	284	282	2	0	0	31	54
2019	274	259	15	0	0	38	71
2018	268	243	25	0	0	32	90
2017	285	264	21	0	0	38	80
2016	264	239	25	0	0	35	90
2015	263	229	34	0	0	38	83
2014	262	219	43	0	0	37	74
2013	262	232	30	0	0	35	71
2012	251	215	35	1	0	41	115
2011	259	196	63	0	0	43	87
2010	262	171	88	3	0	45	115

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

Virginia 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.