Check tomorrow's forecast
AirNow posts an air quality forecast by ZIP code, usually the day before.
AirNow →Air quality in Maui County, HI
Includes Kahului and Wailuku · EPA monitor readings, 2021 to 2025 (fine particles only) · 165,000 people
For today's air and tomorrow's forecast, check AirNow by ZIP code.
Bad-air days a year
<1
day with an AQI over 100
2 bad-air days in 5 years of readings, 2021 to 2025. Maui County has the most bad-air days of the 3 Hawaii counties with monitors.
<1day unhealthy for everyoneAQI over 150, a year
21AQI on a typical dayGood: fine for everyone
7bad-air days since 2016Too few to show a season
171worst day since 2016Jul 11, 2019, fine particles
How to read the AQIThe EPA's air score runs from 0 to 500. Higher is worse. Over 100 counts as a bad-air day.
Typical day 21 (Good)Worst day 171 (Unhealthy)
Good0 to 50Moderate51 to 100Sensitive groups101 to 150Unhealthy151 to 200Very unhealthy201 to 300Hazardous301 to 500
Bad-air days by month in Maui County
Bad air is rare here: 7 bad-air days in 10 years of daily readings since 2016, too few to show a season. Each tile is the average for that month.
Jan0.2
Feb0
Mar0.1
Apr0
May0
Jun0
Jul0.3
Aug0.1
Sep0
Oct0
Nov0
Dec0
The worst day since 2016 was July 11, 2019: AQI 171, from fine particles.
What causes it
Fine particles are the only pollutant measured here. The 7 bad-air days since 2016 were all fine-particle days, between March 2016 and January 2024. 2 of them fell on New Year's Day, when fireworks smoke can push fine particles up. Monitors here don't measure ozone, so smog days aren't in these counts.
What helps in Maui County
The air here is clean most days: 7 bad-air days in 10 years of daily readings. Wildfire smoke can still drift in from far away, so it's worth being ready.
Keep a cheap backup
A box fan with a MERV 13 filter clamped to it cleans a room in a pinch.
Build one →Keep one room clean on smoky days
Shut the windows and run an air purifier sized for the room.
Choosing a purifier →For today's reading and tomorrow's forecast, check AirNow by ZIP code. Its fire and smoke map adds smoke plumes.
Smoky days are rare here, so a purifier is optional. If you want one for wildfire season anyway, see the 3 models we'd buy, each with a verified smoke rating.
Every year since 2000
Bad-air days each year. The striped part is days unhealthy for everyone, over AQI 150. The worst recent year was 2023, with 1 bad-air day.
Unhealthy for sensitive groups (101 to 150)Unhealthy or worse (over 150)
See the numbers by year
| Year | Bad-air days | Over 150 |
|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 0 | 0 |
| 2001 | 0 | 0 |
| 2002 | 0 | 0 |
| 2003 | 0 | 0 |
| 2004 | 0 | 0 |
| 2005 | 1 | 0 |
| 2006 | 0 | 0 |
| 2007 | 1 | 1 |
| 2008 | 0 | 0 |
| 2009 | 0 | 0 |
| 2010 | 0 | 0 |
| 2011 | 0 | 0 |
| 2012 | 0 | 0 |
| 2013 | 0 | 0 |
| 2014 | 1 | 0 |
| 2015 | 0 | 0 |
| 2016 | 1 | 0 |
| 2017 | 0 | 0 |
| 2018 | 0 | 0 |
| 2019 | 4 | 1 |
| 2020 | 0 | 0 |
| 2021 | 0 | 0 |
| 2022 | 0 | 0 |
| 2023 | 1 | 1 |
| 2024 | 1 | 0 |
| 2025 | 0 | 0 |
Maui County and its neighbors
Bad-air days a year, 2021 to 2025. Hawaii counties with monitors averaged almost no bad-air days a year, weighted by population.
Maui County<1
Questions people ask about air in Maui County
How often is the air bad in Maui County?
From 2021 to 2025, monitors in Maui County recorded almost no bad-air days a year with an AQI above 100, which is unhealthy for sensitive groups or worse. The worst year in that stretch was 2023, with 1 bad-air day.
What causes bad air in Maui County?
The 7 bad-air days since 2016 were all fine-particle days, between March 2016 and January 2024. 2 of them fell on New Year's Day, when fireworks smoke can push fine particles up. Monitors here don't measure ozone, so smog days aren't in these counts.
Where can I see today's air quality in Maui County?
AirNow, run by the EPA and its partners, shows the current AQI and tomorrow's forecast for your ZIP code. Its fire and smoke map adds smoke plumes. On a typical day the AQI in Maui County is about 21, which is good, fine for everyone. Bad days are rare here, so check it when wildfire smoke is in the news.
About these numbers
Day counts come from the EPA's county air quality summaries, which take the worst reading across a county's monitors each day. Monitors here reported on about 359 days a year from 2021 to 2025. A county is large, and your street can be cleaner or worse. CDC's modeled estimates, used on our map, don't cover Alaska or Hawaii, so the monitor numbers above are the whole picture here.
Sources: EPA AirData county AQI summaries (2000 to 2025) and daily county AQI (2016 to 2025); CDC Environmental Public Health Tracking Network modeled PM2.5 and ozone (2001 to 2022). Updated November 8, 2026.