Shelton, WA Air Quality

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

In 2025, Shelton, WA 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 330 Good days and 34 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.

Unhealthy days, 2025
1
AQI above 100
Same air, pre-2013 rules
1
for comparison with older reports
Good-air days
330
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

Shelton, WA: days above AQI 100 by year, current rules 0 2 4 6 8 10 2001 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025 2001: 0 days (incomplete monitoring) 2002: 1 days (incomplete monitoring) 2003: 2 days (incomplete monitoring) 2004: 1 days 2005: 0 days 2006: 0 days 2007: 2 days 2008: 0 days 2009: 0 days 2010: 0 days 2011: 0 days 2012: 1 days 2013: 0 days 2014: 0 days 2015: 1 days 2016: 0 days 2017: 2 days 2018: 6 days 2019: 0 days 2020: 9 days 2021: 0 days 2022: 3 days 2023: 1 days 2024: 0 days 2025: 1 days

Scored by the pre-2013 rules

Shelton, WA: days above AQI 100 by year, pre-2013 rules 0 2 4 6 8 10 2001 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025 2001: 0 days (incomplete monitoring) 2002: 0 days (incomplete monitoring) 2003: 0 days (incomplete monitoring) 2004: 0 days 2005: 0 days 2006: 0 days 2007: 2 days 2008: 0 days 2009: 0 days 2010: 0 days 2011: 0 days 2012: 1 days 2013: 0 days 2014: 0 days 2015: 0 days 2016: 0 days 2017: 2 days 2018: 5 days 2019: 0 days 2020: 8 days 2021: 0 days 2022: 3 days 2023: 0 days 2024: 0 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
Good33091%
Moderate349%
Unhealthy for sensitive groups00%
Unhealthy or worse10%

Median AQI 23 · 90th-percentile AQI 48 · worst day 159. 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
Sep 19159Fine particles 152

Statewide context

Shelton, WA sits in Washington.

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
2001 (partial) 3470 041
2002 (partial) 154151 0170
2003 (partial) 225702 0297
2004 2531121 0366
2005 2581070 0365
2006 273780 0351
2007 286772 0365
2008 286800 0366
2009 278820 0360
2010 316490 0365
2011 272880 0360
2012 278871 0366
2013 2331030 0336
2014 319460 0365
2015 316451 0362
2016 327390 0366
2017 301601 1363
2018 304554 2365
2019 305560 0361
2020 312362 7357
2021 339220 0361
2022 302603 0365
2023 313491 0363
2024 341250 0366
2025 330340 1365

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
20010 0 0 041
20021 1 0 0170
20032 1 1 0297
20041 0 1 0366
20050 0 0 0365
20060 0 0 0351
20072 0 2 2365
20080 0 0 0366
20090 0 0 0360
20100 0 0 0365
20110 0 0 0360
20121 0 1 1366
20130 0 0 0336
20140 0 0 0365
20151 0 1 0362
20160 0 0 0366
20172 0 2 2363
20186 0 6 5365
20190 0 0 0361
20209 0 9 8357
20210 0 0 0361
20223 0 3 3365
20231 0 1 0363
20240 0 0 0366
20251 0 1 1365

Sources