Florida Has 10 Beaches With Some of the Best Air Quality in the U.S. — and California Has 10 Too

Both Florida and California have 10 beaches with good air quality.

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If there’s one place where travelers should be able to kick back and take a deep breath, it’s no doubt at the beach. But with pollution, weather, and wildfires impacting air quality around the globe, monitoring Air Quality Index (AQI) has become as essential as checking the temperature — even for a day on the sand.

To get a sense of the American beaches where travelers can truly exhale, a recent report looked at a two-week period in July to compare the average AQI. According to the government agency partnership AirNow, an index of 50 or less is considered “good” and in the green zone. This means the “air quality is satisfactory, and air pollution poses little or no risk." Of the 120 beaches listed in the findings, 111 met that standard.

Coming in on top were two Hawaiian beaches: Hapuna and Poipu Beaches, each with an average AQI of 10. These were followed by a trio of Alaskan sites: Home Spit Beach (11), Sandy Beach (14), and Kenai Beach (14).

In the contiguous United States, both Florida and California secured 10 spots each in the green zone. For Florida, the top beach was St. Augustine at No. 26 (average AQI of 29), followed by Fort Lauderdale (32) and Key West (33). The Sunshine State’s Miami Beach, Siesta Key, Clearwater Beach, South Beach, Naples, Siesta Key Beach, and Panama City Beach were also noted for “good” average air quality.

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California’s lowest index was Carmel Beach in 10th place (average AQI of 16), followed by Santa Cruz (20) and Pismo Beach (25). Also included were Malibu, Newport, Huntington, Laguna, Coronado, Venice, and Santa Monica.

Oregon and Texas each had seven beaches with an average AQI of 50 or less during the study period, while Hawaii and Washington each had six. Louisiana, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Virginia, and Maine notched five each, while Rhode Island and New Hampshire each had four.

The study was conducted by MyBioSource and honed in on the data from July 3 to 17 using IQAir.

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