Air Quality in South Dakota

South Dakota earns an average Air Quality Grade of B, with a 5-year median AQI of 36 across 10 monitored areas — 5 points below the national average of 41. The grade combines four signals — 5-year median AQI, 10-year trend direction, count of unhealthy days per year, and dominant pollutant — into a single A-F score. South Dakota's 10 monitored areas collectively logged 157 days at "Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups" or worse over the last five years.

South Dakota is bucking the national trend of broad improvement: 5 of 10 monitored areas are showing measurably worse air over the past decade, more than the 4 that are improving. Across the western U.S. that pattern usually traces back to expanding wildfire smoke exposure; elsewhere it can reflect rising local emissions from population or freight growth.

The dominant pollutant across 6 of 10 South Dakota areas is Ground-Level Ozone. Ground-level ozone forms when sunlight reacts with vehicle and industrial emissions. It is worst on hot, sunny, stagnant summer days. Ozone irritates the lungs and triggers asthma — even healthy adults can feel it after exercising on high-ozone days. Other monitored areas in the state report Fine Particulate Matter (PM2.5) (4) as their dominant pollutant.

Within South Dakota, the gap between best and worst is meaningful: Hughes, South Dakota tops the state with a Grade A and 5-year median AQI of 13, while Codington, South Dakota sits at the bottom with a Grade D and 5-year median AQI of 40. Local terrain, prevailing winds, and proximity to industrial or wildfire emission sources drive most of that within-state variation.

Hughes, South Dakota is the fastest-improving area in South Dakota, with median AQI falling by 1.3 points per year over the EPA reporting period. Steady improvement at that pace usually reflects fleet turnover (older diesels retiring), upwind power-plant retirements, and tighter local emissions controls.