Albany, GA Air Quality

EPA monitor data through 2025 · Updated September 02, 2026 · Methods

In 2025, Albany, GA recorded 1 days above an Air Quality Index of 100, the level at which EPA begins warning sensitive groups, out of 365 days with monitoring data. The rest of the year was 209 Good days and 155 Moderate days. Most of the bad days were driven by fine particles. Under the AQI rules that applied before 2013, the same air would have scored 1 days. Since 2001, unhealthy days are 50% lower on a consistent definition.

Unhealthy days, 2025
1
AQI above 100
Same air, pre-2013 rules
1
for comparison with older reports
Good-air days
209
AQI 50 or below
Days monitored
365
full year

Unhealthy days by year, scored two ways

EPA changed what an AQI of 100 means in 2013 and again in 2015, so a count published before those changes is not comparable to one published after. Each panel below applies a single fixed rulebook to every year, so each is internally consistent. Why this matters.

Scored by today's rules

Albany, GA: days above AQI 100 by year, current rules 0 2 4 6 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025 2000: 5 days (incomplete monitoring) 2001: 3 days 2002: 1 days (incomplete monitoring) 2003: 0 days (incomplete monitoring) 2004: 3 days (incomplete monitoring) 2005: 1 days (incomplete monitoring) 2006: 0 days (incomplete monitoring) 2007: 5 days (incomplete monitoring) 2008: 2 days (incomplete monitoring) 2009: 4 days 2010: 3 days 2011: 6 days 2012: 2 days 2013: 5 days 2014: 1 days 2015: 1 days 2016: 0 days 2017: 1 days 2018: 1 days 2019: 2 days 2020: 2 days 2021: 4 days 2022: 5 days 2023: 5 days 2024: 4 days 2025: 1 days

Scored by the pre-2013 rules

Albany, GA: days above AQI 100 by year, pre-2013 rules 0 2 4 6 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025 2000: 2 days (incomplete monitoring) 2001: 2 days 2002: 0 days (incomplete monitoring) 2003: 0 days (incomplete monitoring) 2004: 2 days (incomplete monitoring) 2005: 0 days (incomplete monitoring) 2006: 0 days (incomplete monitoring) 2007: 5 days (incomplete monitoring) 2008: 1 days (incomplete monitoring) 2009: 3 days 2010: 2 days 2011: 2 days 2012: 2 days 2013: 2 days 2014: 0 days 2015: 1 days 2016: 0 days 2017: 1 days 2018: 1 days 2019: 0 days 2020: 1 days 2021: 2 days 2022: 4 days 2023: 4 days 2024: 2 days 2025: 1 days
Faded columns mark years with fewer than 300 monitored days, where the count is not comparable.

What 2025 looked like

Air quality categoryDaysShare of days with an AQI
Good20957%
Moderate15543%
Unhealthy for sensitive groups10%
Unhealthy or worse00%

Median AQI 46 · 90th-percentile AQI 64 · worst day 115. Scored under current rules, out of 365 days with an AQI.

What drove the unhealthy days

Of the 1 days above 100 in 2025, 0 were driven by ozone and 1 by fine particles. The two behave differently. Ozone peaks on hot sunny afternoons; fine particles now spike mainly with wildfire smoke.

The unhealthy days in 2025

Every day the index passed 100, what it reached, and which pollutant drove it.

DatePeak AQIDriven byPre-2013 score
Apr 17115Fine particles 102

Statewide context

Albany, GA sits in Georgia.

Days in each air quality category, by year

How many days fell in each AQI category, for every year with an AQI on record. Categories are scored under EPA's current breakpoints. A year with fewer than 300 days is marked, because a short year lowers every count for reasons that have nothing to do with the air.

YearGoodModerate Unhealthy for sensitive groupsUnhealthy or worse Days with an AQI
2000 (partial) 22885 0115
2001 (partial) 37763 0116
2002 (partial) 39721 0112
2003 (partial) 36850 0121
2004 (partial) 36783 0117
2005 (partial) 34811 0116
2006 (partial) 28880 0116
2007 (partial) 33764 1114
2008 (partial) 572022 0261
2009 792424 0325
2010 1132412 1357
2011 742816 0361
2012 1741842 0360
2013 1392205 0364
2014 1272311 0359
2015 1562081 0365
2016 1871760 0363
2017 1811740 1356
2018 2271291 0357
2019 1631912 0356
2020 1941702 0366
2021 1661824 0352
2022 1801734 1358
2023 1771825 0364
2024 2271354 0366
2025 2091551 0365

Good is AQI 0–50, Moderate 51–100, Unhealthy for sensitive groups 101–150. “Unhealthy or worse” combines the Unhealthy, Very Unhealthy and Hazardous categories, which are shown together because most areas record too few of each to report separately. The four columns sum to the last one by construction. These counts exclude sulphur dioxide, following EPA, which drops SO₂ from county and metro summaries because it is too localized to describe a whole area.

The full series

The same years scored two ways, with the pollutant that drove the days above 100. EPA's files record which pollutant set each day's AQI; they do not attribute days to wildfire smoke, so no column here claims to.

YearUnhealthy days, current rulesOf which ozone Of which fine particlesPre-2013 rulesDays monitored
20005 0 5 2115
20013 0 3 2344
20021 0 1 0112
20030 0 0 0121
20043 0 3 2117
20051 0 1 0116
20060 0 0 0116
20075 0 3 5114
20082 0 2 1261
20094 0 4 3325
20103 0 3 2357
20116 0 6 2361
20122 0 2 2360
20135 0 5 2364
20141 0 1 0359
20151 0 1 1365
20160 0 0 0363
20171 0 1 1356
20181 0 1 1357
20192 0 2 0356
20202 0 2 1366
20214 0 4 2352
20225 0 5 4358
20235 0 5 4364
20244 0 4 2366
20251 0 1 1365

Sources