Although it wasn’t always ideal beach weather this summer, New Englanders could breathe a bit better.

Rhode Island hit a record low this year with just three high-ozone days — when the air was unhealthy to breathe — compared with eight days last year, according to preliminary data from the Environmental Protection Agency’s New England office in Boston.

This follows a regional trend. Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine and New Hampshire also experienced fewer high-ozone days. There were 16 days when New England ozone levels were unhealthy between May and September. Last year there were 26 such days.

Ozone naturally exists in the stratosphere and shields the earth from ultraviolet rays. At ground level, ozone can become dangerous in the summertime. On sunny, hot days, ozone chemically reacts with volatile organic compounds and nitrogen oxides to form smog.

State and federal officials attribute this year’s low smog levels to the moderate climate, with few days above 90 degrees. The heavy rainstorms in May and June played a role, along with the cold weather in the middle of August, said Lenny Giuliano, a senior air quality specialist and meteorologist for the state Department of Environmental Management.

Barbara Morin, a DEM supervising environmental scientist, said that ozone is a regional problem and most of the air pollution in Rhode Island is carried by winds from other states, including New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

The state’s air quality has improved over the years, Morin said. “There are days where 10 years ago we would have had ozone violations and we don’t now.”

Other factors for the decline include stricter air emission policies for new buses, cars and trucks, coupled with less summer electricity use, which has reduced pollution from energy plants, said David Deegan, an EPA spokesman for the New England region. With the cool summer, fewer people used air conditioners and that reduced pollution from energy plants.

“We got lucky in that — the weather,” said Molly Clark, director of environmental health programs for the American Lung Association of Rhode Island.

Clark said the stricter emission policies helped curtail pollution. But she added that air pollution hasn’t been solved and there should be more enforcement. “We don’t want to see any lessening of the effort,” she said. “There’s still a long way to go.”

Rhode Island’s smog conditions were worse two decades ago. There were 24 heavy-smog days in 1983 and 28 heavy-smog days in 1984, according to EPA data.

The number of high smog days fluctuated between 4 and 20 days in the 1990s and 2000. Poor air quality was reported on five days in 1992, climbing steadily to peak at 17 days in 2002. High ozone days dropped to 10 in 2003 and 4 in 2004.

However, even with the recent air-quality improvements, Rhode Island, along with Connecticut and Massachusetts, still failed to meet the federal health standards for ozone measurements.

In 2004, the EPA set a stricter policy that requires an eight-hour daily measurement and averaged peak ozone levels for three years. States that fail to meet the EPA standards by the 2007 to 2010 cycle could face EPA sanctions that include withholding federal funds for highway construction and repairs.

The ozone level should stay under .085 parts per million – an average from 2003 to 2005. The Rhode Island measurement was .089 parts per million during that period. Using this year’s preliminary data, the ozone levels would still violate the federal standard, said Anne Arnold, manager of the EPA air quality planning unit.

Morin said the DEM is updating the current state plan to meet the eight-hour standard and intends to submit a new plan by the June deadline.

For more information, visit http://www.epa.gov

Michelle J. Lee is a Metcalf Institute for Marine and Environmental Reporting fellow.