Wyoming Air Quality

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

In 2025, Wyoming recorded 30 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 98 Good days and 237 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 28 days. Since 2000, unhealthy days are 115% higher on a consistent definition.

Unhealthy days, 2025
30
AQI above 100
Same air, pre-2013 rules
28
for comparison with older reports
Good-air days
98
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 Wyoming?” — 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

Wyoming: days above AQI 100 by year, current rules 0 10 20 30 40 50 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025 2000: 26 days 2001: 23 days 2002: 39 days 2003: 43 days 2004: 21 days 2005: 32 days 2006: 25 days 2007: 28 days 2008: 26 days 2009: 16 days 2010: 9 days 2011: 28 days 2012: 53 days 2013: 11 days 2014: 10 days 2015: 14 days 2016: 4 days 2017: 23 days 2018: 20 days 2019: 16 days 2020: 37 days 2021: 49 days 2022: 30 days 2023: 29 days 2024: 46 days 2025: 30 days

Scored by the pre-2013 rules

Wyoming: days above AQI 100 by year, pre-2013 rules 0 10 20 30 40 50 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025 2000: 13 days 2001: 14 days 2002: 23 days 2003: 26 days 2004: 12 days 2005: 23 days 2006: 13 days 2007: 19 days 2008: 24 days 2009: 9 days 2010: 3 days 2011: 20 days 2012: 32 days 2013: 6 days 2014: 9 days 2015: 6 days 2016: 2 days 2017: 16 days 2018: 12 days 2019: 10 days 2020: 35 days 2021: 30 days 2022: 30 days 2023: 21 days 2024: 36 days 2025: 28 days

What 2025 looked like

Air quality categoryDaysShare of days with an AQI
Good9827%
Moderate23765%
Unhealthy for sensitive groups175%
Unhealthy or worse133%

Median AQI 61 · 90th-percentile AQI 96 · worst day 723. Scored under current rules, out of 365 days with an AQI.

What drove the unhealthy days

Of the 30 days above 100 in 2025, 2 were driven by ozone and 4 by fine particles, with 24 from another pollutant. The two behave differently. Ozone peaks on hot sunny afternoons; fine particles now spike mainly with wildfire smoke. In the western United States, ozone is a different problem: the floor is rising, with even the cleanest summer days at high elevation now near 40 ppb, and bad years track wildfire seasons. Domestic emission cuts have less room to work against that.

The unhealthy days in 2025

Every day the index passed 100, what it reached, and which pollutant drove it. 2 of these 30 would not have counted as unhealthy under the pre-2013 rules.

DatePeak AQIDriven byPre-2013 score
Jan 16181Coarse particles 181
Jan 17283Coarse particles 283
Jan 21104Coarse particles 104
Feb 1175Coarse particles 175
Feb 23283Coarse particles 283
Feb 25144Coarse particles 144
Mar 16171Coarse particles 171
Apr 9109Coarse particles 109
Apr 13101Ozone 87 (not unhealthy)
May 10108Ozone 93 (not unhealthy)
May 13115Coarse particles 115
Jun 10103Coarse particles 103
Jun 11113Coarse particles 113
Jun 20406Coarse particles 415
Jul 9116Coarse particles 116
Jul 17103Coarse particles 103
Aug 14103Coarse particles 103
Aug 23164Fine particles 156
Aug 24121Fine particles 118
Aug 26157Fine particles 149
Sep 4154Fine particles 139
Nov 2139Coarse particles 139
Nov 4109Coarse particles 109
Nov 6127Coarse particles 127
Nov 24104Coarse particles 104
Dec 2119Coarse particles 119
Dec 9723Coarse particles 701
Dec 12151Coarse particles 151
Dec 17723Coarse particles 701
Dec 19444Coarse particles 450

Metro areas in Wyoming

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

Metro areaUnhealthy daysPre-2013 rulesMain driver
Laramie, WY1111 ozone and fine particles equally
Rock Springs, WY88 ozone and fine particles equally
Gillette, WY22 ozone and fine particles equally
Cheyenne, WY10 ozone
Casper, WY00 ozone and fine particles equally
Evanston, WY00 ozone and fine particles equally
Jackson, WY-ID00 ozone and fine particles equally
Riverton, WY00 ozone and fine particles equally
Sheridan, WY00 ozone and fine particles equally

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 12022023 3366
2001 8625618 5365
2002 7025634 5365
2003 6525742 1365
2004 9125416 5366
2005 8325028 4365
2006 7027022 3365
2007 6127625 3365
2008 6927119 7366
2009 11423512 4365
2010 792779 0365
2011 6127622 6365
2012 5725643 10366
2013 892659 2365
2014 892668 2365
2015 10224911 3365
2016 1312313 1366
2017 8725515 8365
2018 10024517 3365
2019 12922013 3365
2020 11421521 16366
2021 10621039 10365
2022 7925619 11365
2023 6427222 7365
2024 7724332 14366
2025 9823717 13365

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
200026 15 7 13366
200123 6 8 14365
200239 20 1 23365
200343 28 1 26365
200421 4 8 12366
200532 13 3 23365
200625 16 1 13365
200728 15 0 19365
200826 18 2 24366
200916 7 4 9365
20109 6 0 3365
201128 20 4 20365
201253 24 12 32366
201311 6 0 6365
201410 0 1 9365
201514 6 6 6365
20164 0 2 2366
201723 10 7 16365
201820 6 3 12365
201916 13 0 10365
202037 3 19 35366
202149 24 9 30365
202230 1 1 30365
202329 11 10 21365
202446 15 15 36366
202530 2 4 28365

Sources