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

under 1 bad air days a year

Rare: among the cleanest-air counties EPA monitors. Ranked 897 of 996 monitored counties, where 1 is worst.

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

When the bad days come in Rowan

Most bad days here fall in July and June. 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 Rowan

In 2000 to 2009 this county averaged 56 bad days a year; in 2016 to 2025, under 1. The air has improved. The worst recent year was 2023, with 3 bad days on 363 monitored days.

Date	AQI	Main pollutant
2023-06-29	122	PM2.5
2023-07-18	121	PM2.5
2023-07-17	118	PM2.5
2019-09-17	100	Ozone
2023-04-20	100	Ozone

Most days, not the worst ones

Across 3,601 monitored days from 2016 to 2025, the air in Rowan County rated Good on 75% of them, close to the 72% typical of monitored counties, and Moderate on 25%. The median day sat at AQI 42; one day in ten went above 58.

The pollutant setting the AQI on an ordinary day here:

ozone68%2,452 days
fine particles (PM2.5)32%1,148 days

Year by year

Year	Days monitored	Good	Moderate	Over 100	Over 150	Median AQI	Highest AQI
2025*	365	269	96	0	0	43	88
2024	364	252	112	0	0	44	97
2023	363	210	150	3	0	47	122
2022	364	230	134	0	0	46	87
2021	364	244	120	0	0	44	87
2020	365	253	112	0	0	43	90
2019	365	276	89	0	0	44	100
2018	336	322	14	0	0	35	74
2017	355	331	24	0	0	38	80
2016	360	313	47	0	0	37	97
2015	358	166	191	1	0	52	122
2014	365	190	175	0	0	50	93
2013	365	208	156	1	0	47	108
2012	366	149	205	12	2	52	206
2011	365	132	209	24	1	55	159
2010	365	119	225	21	1	56	169

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

Elsewhere in North Carolina

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.