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AirNow →Air quality in Durham County, NC
EPA monitor readings, 2021 to 2025 · 325,000 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
3 bad-air days in 5 years of readings, 2021 to 2025. That's down from about 26 a year in the early 2000s. Durham County is tied with 7 other North Carolina counties for the 8th most bad-air days of the 34 with monitors.
0days unhealthy for everyoneAQI over 150, a year
45AQI on a typical dayGood: fine for everyone
4bad-air days since 2016Too few to show a season
121worst day since 2016Jun 29, 2023, 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 45 (Good)Worst day 121 (Unhealthy for sensitive groups)
Good0 to 50Moderate51 to 100Sensitive groups101 to 150Unhealthy151 to 200Very unhealthy201 to 300Hazardous301 to 500
Bad-air days by month in Durham County
Bad air is rare here: 4 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
Feb0
Mar0
Apr0
May0
Jun0.2
Jul0.1
Aug0
Sep0
Oct0
Nov0.1
Dec0
The worst day since 2016 was June 29, 2023: AQI 121, from fine particles.
What causes it
The 4 bad-air days since 2016 were all fine-particle days, in November 2016, June 2023 and July 2023.
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.
See the numbers by month
| Month | Fine particles | Ozone |
|---|---|---|
| January | 0 | 0 |
| February | 0 | 0 |
| March | 0 | 0 |
| April | 0 | 1.0 |
| May | 0 | 1.5 |
| June | 0.3 | 2.8 |
| July | 0.3 | 2.4 |
| August | 0.5 | 2.4 |
| September | 0 | 1.1 |
| October | 0 | 0.1 |
| November | 0 | 0 |
| December | 0 | 0 |
What helps in Durham County
The air here is clean most days: 4 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 3 bad-air days.
Unhealthy for sensitive groups (101 to 150)Unhealthy or worse (over 150)
See the numbers by year
| Year | Bad-air days | Over 150 |
|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 37 | 6 |
| 2001 | 28 | 3 |
| 2002 | 44 | 16 |
| 2003 | 16 | 1 |
| 2004 | 7 | 0 |
| 2005 | 18 | 0 |
| 2006 | 13 | 1 |
| 2007 | 22 | 3 |
| 2008 | 7 | 0 |
| 2009 | 0 | 0 |
| 2010 | 8 | 0 |
| 2011 | 3 | 0 |
| 2012 | 7 | 1 |
| 2013 | 0 | 0 |
| 2014 | 0 | 0 |
| 2015 | 0 | 0 |
| 2016 | 1 | 0 |
| 2017 | 0 | 0 |
| 2018 | 0 | 0 |
| 2019 | 0 | 0 |
| 2020 | 0 | 0 |
| 2021 | 0 | 0 |
| 2022 | 0 | 0 |
| 2023 | 3 | 0 |
| 2024 | 0 | 0 |
| 2025 | 0 | 0 |
Durham County and its neighbors
Bad-air days a year, 2021 to 2025. North Carolina counties with monitors averaged about 1 bad-air day a year, weighted by population.
Nearest counties with a full report: Johnston County, NC (under 1 bad-air days a year), Guilford County, NC (1 bad-air day a year).
Questions people ask about air in Durham County
How often is the air bad in Durham County?
From 2021 to 2025, monitors in Durham County 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 2023, with 3 bad-air days.
What causes bad air in Durham County?
The 4 bad-air days since 2016 were all fine-particle days, in November 2016, June 2023 and July 2023.
Where can I see today's air quality in Durham 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 Durham County is about 45, 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 364 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 Durham 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.