And more importantly, they could breathe fresh air.

As bushfires raged across the NSW South Coast and Snowy Mountains areas before coming into the ACT, Canberra became blanketed with bushfire smoke for much of the summer.

As the season came to a close, the full extent of the health crisis that cancelled sporting matches, fireworks, flights and impacted on daily life has been revealed.

Of the 91 days this summer, more than a third of those days had air quality levels higher than hazardous.

Data from the ACT's three air quality tracking stations revealed suburbs to Canberra's south were the worst affected by the bushfire smoke with 40 days classified as above hazardous.

Civic's station recorded 39 above hazardous days in the summer while the station in Florey had 37.

An air quality reading of 200 PM2.5 - a measure of the concentration of the air of particles smaller than 2.5 microns - is considered more than hazardous.

At the worst of the summer's smoke crisis, air quality levels in Monash reached levels of 5185 on January 1, more than 250 times the hazardous level.

The limit for air quality levels considered to be 'good' is 33.

Overall, Civic and Florey air stations recorded 58 days this summer of air-quality levels considered 'poor', between 66 and 100 PM2.5, or worse.

While Monash recorded more hazardous days, overall it had 57 days in summer of air quality readings listed as poor or worse.

After a small respite at the beginning of summer, December 7 saw the start of the dangerous air quality across Canberra.

The next four to five days had levels reach above hazardous for the first time in the ACT, before coming back down to poor or very poor, depending on the area.

It was just a taste of what was to come.

From December 17, the next three weeks had every single day exceed hazardous levels, choking the city with thick smoke at the height of the bushfire crisis in nearby NSW.

Two large spikes when the PM2.5 levels exceeded hazardous, one on New Year's Eve and on January 5, had all three air quality stations exceed at least 3000.

Levels then dipped, but only to very poor or poor levels for a day, before another bout of hazardous air swept over Canberra for as much as a week in mid January.

While there was a brief respite in terms of air quality, the last spike of hazardous conditions came towards the end of January, triggered by the Orroral Valley bushfire in the Namadgi Natonal Park.

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All stations saw PM2.5 levels go above 200, but the station in Monash bore the brunt of the smoke, notching up hazardous days from January 26 until January 31 at the height of the bushfire crisis.

While the fire continued to burn for much of February, air quality levels finally returned to normal on February 7, where they remained that way for the rest of the summer.

ACT chief health officer Dr Kerryn Coleman said the severity of the summer forced ACT Health to add hourly data monitoring for all three air quality stations.

Previously, air quality data was only registered on a daily basis.

"Generally, the air quality in the ACT is excellent," Dr Coleman said.

"In terms of the monitoring that occurred, there have been no changes to the monitoring of air quality.

"Going forward, the ACT government recently agreed that a whole of government strategy on smoke and air quality will be developed prior to the next bushfire season."