Wheeling, WV-OH Air Quality

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

In 2025, Wheeling, WV-OH 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 186 Good days and 137 Moderate days. Most of the bad days were driven by ozone and fine particles equally. Under the AQI rules that applied before 2013, the same air would have scored 1 days. Since 2000, unhealthy days are 67% 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
186
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

Wheeling, WV-OH: days above AQI 100 by year, current rules 0 10 20 30 40 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025 2000: 9 days 2001: 38 days 2002: 36 days 2003: 10 days 2004: 4 days 2005: 33 days 2006: 20 days 2007: 33 days 2008: 7 days 2009: 5 days 2010: 9 days 2011: 8 days 2012: 11 days 2013: 2 days 2014: 1 days 2015: 2 days 2016: 3 days 2017: 0 days 2018: 1 days 2019: 0 days 2020: 1 days 2021: 1 days 2022: 0 days 2023: 5 days 2024: 0 days 2025: 1 days

Scored by the pre-2013 rules

Wheeling, WV-OH: days above AQI 100 by year, pre-2013 rules 0 10 20 30 40 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025 2000: 3 days 2001: 19 days 2002: 28 days 2003: 7 days 2004: 2 days 2005: 20 days 2006: 10 days 2007: 15 days 2008: 1 days 2009: 0 days 2010: 4 days 2011: 1 days 2012: 2 days 2013: 0 days 2014: 1 days 2015: 0 days 2016: 0 days 2017: 0 days 2018: 0 days 2019: 0 days 2020: 0 days 2021: 1 days 2022: 0 days 2023: 2 days 2024: 0 days 2025: 1 days

What 2025 looked like

Air quality categoryDaysShare of days with an AQI
Good18658%
Moderate13742%
Unhealthy for sensitive groups10%
Unhealthy or worse00%

Median AQI 46 · 90th-percentile AQI 64 · worst day 123. Scored under current rules, out of 324 days with an AQI.

What drove the unhealthy days

Of the 1 days above 100 in 2025, 0 were driven by ozone and 0 by fine particles, with 1 from another pollutant. 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
Mar 14123Coarse particles 123

Statewide context

Wheeling, WV-OH sits in West Virginia, Ohio.

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 2461117 2366
2001 19713033 5365
2002 21611227 9364
2003 2301257 3365
2004 2391064 0349
2005 (partial) 9413828 5265
2006 7826020 0358
2007 6227033 0365
2008 782817 0366
2009 952655 0365
2010 862559 0350
2011 1222338 0363
2012 9725810 1366
2013 1382252 0365
2014 1352291 0365
2015 1681952 0365
2016 1841793 0366
2017 1122530 0365
2018 2221421 0365
2019 293720 0365
2020 309561 0366
2021 1492151 0365
2022 1612040 0365
2023 1542063 2365
2024 2431230 0366
2025 1861371 0324

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
20009 6 3 3366
200138 35 3 19365
200236 32 4 28365
200310 8 2 7365
20044 2 2 2366
200533 33 0 20365
200620 13 7 10365
200733 24 9 15365
20087 4 3 1366
20095 5 0 0365
20109 7 2 4365
20118 7 1 1365
201211 11 0 2366
20132 2 0 0365
20141 0 1 1365
20152 2 0 0365
20163 3 0 0366
20170 0 0 0365
20181 1 0 0365
20190 0 0 0365
20201 1 0 0366
20211 0 1 1365
20220 0 0 0365
20235 2 3 2365
20240 0 0 0366
20251 0 0 1365

Sources