Alaska Air Quality

EPA monitor data through 2025 · Updated August 13, 2026 · Methods

In 2025, Alaska recorded 22 days above an Air Quality Index of 100, the level at which EPA begins warning sensitive groups, out of 365 days with monitoring data. Most of those bad days were driven by fine particles. Under the AQI rules that applied before 2013, the same air would have scored 19 days. Since 2000, unhealthy days are 111% higher on a consistent definition.

Unhealthy days, 2025

AQI above 100

Same air, pre-2013 rules

for comparison with older reports

Good-air days

163

AQI 50 or below

Days monitored

365

full year

How to read a statewide figure. The Air Quality Index describes one place at one time. A statewide number is the worst monitor anywhere in the state on each day, so it answers “was the air unhealthy somewhere in Alaska?” — not “what did a typical resident breathe?” In a large state with many monitors it will read high even if most of the state was clean. EPA publishes the AQI for metropolitan areas rather than states for exactly this reason. For what people actually breathed, use the metro pages below.

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

Scored by the pre-2013 rules

What 2025 looked like

Air quality category	Days	Share of monitored days
Good	163	45%
Moderate	180	49%
Unhealthy for sensitive groups	12	3%
Unhealthy or worse	10	3%

Median AQI 53 · 90th-percentile AQI 92 · worst day 190. Scored under current rules.

What drove the unhealthy days

Of the 22 days above 100 in 2025, 0 were driven by ozone and 20 by fine particles, with 2 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. 3 of these 22 would not have counted as unhealthy under the pre-2013 rules.

Date	Peak AQI	Driven by	Pre-2013 score
Jan 1	190	Fine particles	178
Jan 2	152	Fine particles	133
Jan 3	146	Fine particles	127
Jan 4	158	Fine particles	150
Jan 16	140	Fine particles	122
Jan 18	128	Fine particles	113
Jan 21	105	Fine particles	94 (not unhealthy)
Feb 11	105	Fine particles	94 (not unhealthy)
Mar 24	110	Coarse particles	110
Apr 16	141	Coarse particles	141
Jun 22	159	Fine particles	152
Jun 23	115	Fine particles	102
Jul 3	160	Fine particles	153
Jul 4	156	Fine particles	146
Jul 5	166	Fine particles	158
Jul 6	169	Fine particles	160
Jul 7	175	Fine particles	165
Jul 13	121	Fine particles	107
Nov 19	115	Fine particles	102
Dec 8	108	Fine particles	96 (not unhealthy)
Dec 9	157	Fine particles	148
Dec 11	133	Fine particles	117

Metro areas in Alaska

Ranked by unhealthy days in their latest year. These are the geographies EPA actually reports the AQI for.

Metro area	Unhealthy days	Pre-2013 rules	Main driver
Fairbanks, AK	20	17	fine particles
Anchorage, AK	3	2	fine particles
Juneau, AK	1	1	fine particles

The full series

Year	Unhealthy days, current rules	Pre-2013 rules	Days monitored
2000	14	9	366
2001	8	7	365
2002	8	4	365
2003	5	5	365
2004	20	18	366
2005	8	6	365
2006	25	14	365
2007	18	11	365
2008	34	26	366
2009	51	37	365
2010	40	30	365
2011	35	22	365
2012	44	39	366
2013	63	53	365
2014	90	81	365
2015	69	61	365
2016	59	49	366
2017	46	39	365
2018	43	30	365
2019	49	40	365
2020	37	32	366
2021	37	28	365
2022	47	39	365
2023	33	27	365
2024	25	23	366
2025	22	19	365

Sources

EPA AirData daily monitor files, recomputed under both breakpoint tables. Methods and validation.
Download the full dataset for every state and metro.