Air quality alerts depend upon the limits set for particular pollutants - if those limits have been adjusted lately (and they’re always adjusted down to lower acceptable values) either by federal or state regulatory agencies, the number of days exceeding the legal limits will go up. I have no idea whether that’s the case in your area.
Note also - some of the air quality pollutants have no obvious visible indications - everything doesn’t lead to smog.
The million dollar question:
Did they “adjust” their thresholds for such alerts to suit the new ‘climate change’ agenda?