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

1 bad air day a year

Fewer bad air days than most monitored US counties. Ranked 667 of 996 monitored counties, where 1 is worst.

What makes them bad: mostly ozone: summer smog (0% particle days).

The bad-air season here

Most bad days here fall in May and June and April. 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 worst days on file

In 2000 to 2009 this county averaged 32 bad days a year; in 2016 to 2025, 1. The air has improved. The worst recent year was 2016, with 4 bad days on 204 monitored days.

Date	AQI	Main pollutant
2016-05-26	115	Ozone
2016-05-25	108	Ozone
2020-05-02	105	Ozone
2016-04-19	101	Ozone
2016-06-11	101	Ozone

An ordinary day in Yancey

Across 2,050 monitored days from 2016 to 2024, the air in Yancey 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 44; one day in ten went above 62.

The pollutant setting the AQI on an ordinary day here:

ozone100%2,050 days

Every recent year on file

Year	Days monitored	Good	Moderate	Over 100	Over 150	Median AQI	Highest AQI
2024	204	167	37	0	0	44	84
2023	240	179	60	1	0	45	101
2022	242	200	42	0	0	44	93
2021	240	186	54	0	0	44	90
2020	244	204	39	1	0	44	105
2019	244	191	53	0	0	45	87
2018	230	184	46	0	0	44	84
2017	202	155	47	0	0	44	93
2016	204	145	55	4	0	46	115
2015	192	136	56	0	0	45	97
2014	199	157	41	1	0	44	101
2013	211	169	42	0	0	46	97
2012	194	141	50	3	1	47	156
2011	191	72	115	4	0	58	126
2010	211	130	74	7	0	48	129

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, and on why a purifier does not touch ozone in smoke vs ozone.