Move workouts to the morning
Ozone peaks on hot, sunny afternoons. Mornings are usually cleaner.
Ozone guide →Air quality in Aiken County, SC
Includes Aiken · EPA monitor readings, 2021 to 2025 (ozone only) · 169,000 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
No bad-air days from 2021 to 2025. That's down from about 27 a year in the early 2000s. Aiken County is tied with 2 other South Carolina counties for the fewest bad-air days of the 13 with monitors.
0days unhealthy for everyoneAQI over 150, a year
38AQI on a typical dayGood: fine for everyone
Cleanevery month since 2016No bad-air days in the daily readings
97worst day since 2016Sep 25, 2019, ozone
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 38 (Good)Worst day 97 (Moderate)
Good0 to 50Moderate51 to 100Sensitive groups101 to 150Unhealthy151 to 200Very unhealthy201 to 300Hazardous301 to 500
Bad-air days by month in Aiken County
Monitors here recorded no bad-air days in 8 years of daily readings since 2016. Every month is clear.
Jan0
Feb0
Mar0
Apr0
May0
Jun0
Jul0
Aug0
Sep0
Oct0
Nov0
Dec0
The worst day since 2016 was September 25, 2019: AQI 97, from ozone.
What causes it
Ozone is the only pollutant measured here. Monitors here recorded no bad-air days since 2016. Monitors here don't measure fine particles, so smoky days aren't in these counts.
CDC's model estimates about 0.6 days a year with high fine particles at the county's worst spot, 2018 to 2022. See the estimates on the map
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 | 0.1 |
| April | 0 | 0.9 |
| May | 0 | 1.7 |
| June | 0.1 | 1.7 |
| July | 0.4 | 1.5 |
| August | 0.2 | 1.3 |
| September | 0 | 0.6 |
| October | 0 | 0.2 |
| November | 0.2 | 0 |
| December | 0.1 | 0 |
What helps in Aiken County
Monitors here track ozone, which builds on hot afternoons, so timing helps. They don't track smoke, so it's worth having a clean room ready too.
Check tomorrow's forecast
AirNow posts an air quality forecast by ZIP code, usually the day before.
AirNow →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. No year from 2021 to 2025 had a 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 | 45 | 9 |
| 2001 | 38 | 3 |
| 2002 | 29 | 7 |
| 2003 | 3 | 0 |
| 2004 | 18 | 0 |
| 2005 | 16 | 0 |
| 2006 | 11 | 0 |
| 2007 | 18 | 0 |
| 2008 | 11 | 0 |
| 2009 | 2 | 0 |
| 2010 | 0 | 0 |
| 2011 | 1 | 0 |
| 2012 | 0 | 0 |
| 2013 | 0 | 0 |
| 2014 | 0 | 0 |
| 2015 | 0 | 0 |
| 2016 | 0 | 0 |
| 2017 | 0 | 0 |
| 2020 | 0 | 0 |
| 2021 | 0 | 0 |
| 2022 | 0 | 0 |
| 2023 | 0 | 0 |
| 2024 | 0 | 0 |
| 2025 | 0 | 0 |
Aiken County and its neighbors
Bad-air days a year, 2021 to 2025. South Carolina counties with monitors averaged about 1 bad-air day a year, weighted by population.
Nearest county with a full report: Richland County, SC (1 bad-air day a year).
Questions people ask about air in Aiken County
How often is the air bad in Aiken County?
From 2021 to 2025, monitors in Aiken County recorded almost no bad-air days a year with an AQI above 100, which is unhealthy for sensitive groups or worse. No year from 2021 to 2025 had a bad-air day.
What causes bad air in Aiken County?
Monitors here recorded no bad-air days since 2016. Monitors here don't measure fine particles, so smoky days aren't in these counts.
Where can I see today's air quality in Aiken 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 Aiken County is about 38, 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 272 days a year from 2021 to 2025; some run only in ozone season, so a few bad days can go uncounted. 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 Aiken County about 1 high-particle day 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.