Air quality in St. Tammany Parish, LA

Includes Slidell, Mandeville and Covington · EPA monitor readings, 2021 to 2025 · 265,000 people

Clean most days
Bad-air days a year
<1
day with an AQI over 100

4 bad-air days in 5 years of readings, 2021 to 2025. St. Tammany Parish is tied with 1 other Louisiana county for the 5th fewest bad-air days of the 19 with monitors.

<1day unhealthy for everyoneAQI over 150, a year
39AQI on a typical dayGood: fine for everyone
7bad-air days since 2016Too few to show a season
186worst day since 2016Jan 1, 2024, 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 39 (Good)Worst day 186 (Unhealthy)
Good0 to 50Moderate51 to 100Sensitive groups101 to 150Unhealthy151 to 200Very unhealthy201 to 300Hazardous301 to 500

Bad-air days by month in St. Tammany Parish

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.

Jan0.1
Feb0
Mar0.1
Apr0
May0.4
Jun0.1
Jul0
Aug0
Sep0
Oct0
Nov0
Dec0

The worst day since 2016 was January 1, 2024: AQI 186, from fine particles (New Year's fireworks are a common cause).

What causes it

The 7 bad-air days since 2016 were 5 ozone days (between May 2016 and March 2025) and 2 fine-particle days (in June 2022 and January 2024). One of them fell on New Year's Day, when fireworks smoke can push fine particles up.

CDC estimates by month, 2001 to 2022

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.

January: 0.2 smoky days a yearJanuary: 0.0 ozone days a yearJFMarch: 0.0 smoky days a yearMarch: 0.5 ozone days a yearMApril: 1.3 ozone days a yearAMay: 0.0 smoky days a yearMay: 2.6 ozone days a yearMJune: 1.9 ozone days a yearJJuly: 0.7 ozone days a yearJAugust: 0.7 ozone days a yearASeptember: 0.1 smoky days a yearSeptember: 1.1 ozone days a yearSOctober: 1.0 ozone days a yearONovember: 0.0 smoky days a yearNovember: 0.1 ozone days a yearNDbad daysby month
See the numbers by month
CDC estimated bad-air days a year in each month in St. Tammany Parish, 2001 to 2022
MonthFine particlesOzone
January0.20
February00
March00.5
April01.3
May02.6
June01.9
July00.7
August00.7
September0.11.1
October01.0
November00.1
December00

What helps in St. Tammany Parish

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.

Check tomorrow's forecast

AirNow posts an air quality forecast by ZIP code, usually the day before.

AirNow →

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 2008

Bad-air days each year. The striped part is days unhealthy for everyone, over AQI 150. The worst recent year was 2022, with 1 bad-air day.

0510152020082010152015202020251051015202008201015202020251
Unhealthy for sensitive groups (101 to 150)Unhealthy or worse (over 150)
See the numbers by year
Bad-air days each year in St. Tammany Parish
YearBad-air daysOver 150
200890
200941
201052
2011150
201230
201341
201490
201500
201610
201710
201810
201900
202000
202100
202210
202310
202411
202510

St. Tammany Parish and its neighbors

Bad-air days a year, 2021 to 2025. Louisiana counties with monitors averaged about 2 bad-air days a year, weighted by population.

Jefferson Parish2
St. John the Baptist Parish1
St. Bernard Parish1
St. Tammany Parish<1
Orleans Parish<1
Hancock County<1

Questions people ask about air in St. Tammany Parish

How often is the air bad in St. Tammany Parish?

From 2021 to 2025, monitors in St. Tammany Parish recorded about 1 bad-air day a year with an AQI above 100, which is unhealthy for sensitive groups or worse. The worst year in that stretch was 2022, with 1 bad-air day.

What causes bad air in St. Tammany Parish?

The 7 bad-air days since 2016 were 5 ozone days (between May 2016 and March 2025) and 2 fine-particle days (in June 2022 and January 2024). One of them fell on New Year's Day, when fireworks smoke can push fine particles up.

Where can I see today's air quality in St. Tammany Parish?

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 St. Tammany Parish is about 39, 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 361 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 St. Tammany Parish almost no high-particle days and about 1 high-ozone day 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.