Keep one room clean on smoky days
Shut the windows and run an air purifier sized for the room.
Choosing a purifier →EPA monitor readings, 2021 to 2025 · 3,000 people
For today's air and tomorrow's forecast, check AirNow by ZIP code.
19 bad-air days in 5 years of readings, 2021 to 2025. That's down from about 8 a year in the early 2000s. Trego County has the 2nd most bad-air days of the 10 Kansas counties with monitors.
Average bad-air days in each month, from 10 years of daily readings since 2016. Most fall in April, August and September.
| Month | Ozone | Fine particles | Dust | All |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| February | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| March | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| April | 0 | 0.1 | 0.3 | 0.4 |
| May | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| June | 0.1 | 0 | 0 | 0.1 |
| July | 0.2 | 0 | 0 | 0.2 |
| August | 0 | 0.4 | 0 | 0.4 |
| September | 0.1 | 0.3 | 0 | 0.4 |
| October | 0 | 0 | 0.2 | 0.2 |
| November | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| December | 0 | 0 | 0.2 | 0.2 |
The worst day since 2016 was December 15, 2021: AQI 318, from dust and coarse particles.
The pollutant that pushed the AQI over 100 on each of the 21 bad-air days since 2016.
Bad days here come from both fine particles such as smoke and blowing dust.
The CDC's model counts bad-air days at the county's worst spot, from monitors and satellites. Particles (brown) fill the inside of the ring and ozone (blue) the outside.
| Month | Fine particles | Ozone |
|---|---|---|
| January | 0 | 0 |
| February | 0 | 0 |
| March | 0 | 0 |
| April | 0 | 0 |
| May | 0 | 0 |
| June | 0 | 0.5 |
| July | 0 | 0.2 |
| August | 0.1 | 0.3 |
| September | 0 | 0 |
| October | 0 | 0 |
| November | 0 | 0 |
| December | 0 | 0 |
Bad days here come from fine particles and dust. Filtering the air at home helps with both.
Shut the windows and run an air purifier sized for the room.
Choosing a purifier →Use MERV 13 if your system can take it, and run the fan on smoky days.
Furnace filters →Dust days come with wind. When the forecast calls for high wind or the Weather Service posts a dust warning, plan to stay in.
AirNow →For today's reading and tomorrow's forecast, check AirNow by ZIP code. Its fire and smoke map adds smoke plumes.
For a clean room on smoky days. Each has a smoke CADR tested by AHAM's independent program and is certified by California as a mechanical cleaner, so it makes no ozone.
143 smoke CADR
The cheapest unit we found with a verified smoke rating. Enough for a bedroom clean room.
$119.99 at Levoit250 smoke CADR
The most verified smoke cleaning per dollar of any qualifying model: 75% more than the 100S-P for $50 more.
$169.99 at Levoit391 smoke CADR
For a big room or a small apartment. Buy the LAP-C601S-WUS version, which CARB lists as mechanical.
$299.99 at LevoitWhy all 3 are Levoit: of the models we checked that pass both tests, these give the most verified smoke cleaning per dollar at each room size. Medify's MA-25 and MA-40 also pass but cost more for the same cleaning.
Ratings from the AHAM Verifide directory and CARB's certified list. Prices from Levoit's site, checked November 7, 2026; they change. We don't earn anything from these links. How to pick a purifier
Bad-air days each year. The striped part is days unhealthy for everyone, over AQI 150. The worst recent year was 2021, with 6 bad-air days.
| Year | Bad-air days | Over 150 |
|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 18 | 1 |
| 2001 | 14 | 0 |
| 2002 | 1 | 0 |
| 2003 | 1 | 0 |
| 2004 | 4 | 0 |
| 2005 | 6 | 0 |
| 2006 | 19 | 0 |
| 2007 | 1 | 0 |
| 2008 | 0 | 0 |
| 2009 | 1 | 0 |
| 2010 | 4 | 0 |
| 2011 | 11 | 0 |
| 2012 | 13 | 0 |
| 2013 | 0 | 0 |
| 2014 | 0 | 0 |
| 2015 | 1 | 0 |
| 2016 | 0 | 0 |
| 2017 | 0 | 0 |
| 2018 | 1 | 0 |
| 2019 | 0 | 0 |
| 2020 | 1 | 0 |
| 2021 | 6 | 1 |
| 2022 | 3 | 1 |
| 2023 | 5 | 1 |
| 2024 | 4 | 0 |
| 2025 | 1 | 0 |
Bad-air days a year, 2021 to 2025. Kansas counties with monitors averaged about 4 bad-air days a year, weighted by population.
Nearest counties with a full report: Sedgwick County, KS (4 bad-air days a year), Hall County, NE (1 bad-air day a year).
From 2021 to 2025, monitors in Trego County recorded about 4 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 2021, with 6 bad-air days.
Bad days here come from both fine particles such as smoke and blowing dust. Bad days cluster in April, August and September.
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 Trego County is about 43, which is good, fine for everyone. Check it most in April, August and September, when bad days here cluster.
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 363 days a year from 2021 to 2025. A county is large, and your street can be cleaner or worse. CDC's model, which estimates every county from monitors and satellites, gives the worst spot in Trego County almost no high-particle days and almost no high-ozone days a year from 2018 to 2022.
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.