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El Paso, TX Air Quality

EPA monitor data through 2025 · Updated August 13, 2026 · Methods

In 2025, El Paso, TX recorded 63 days above an Air Quality Index of 100, the level at which EPA begins warning sensitive groups, out of 365 days with monitoring data. Most of those bad days were driven by fine particles. Under the AQI rules that applied before 2013, the same air would have scored 55 days. Since 2000, unhealthy days are 77% higher on a consistent definition.

Unhealthy days, 2025

AQI above 100

Same air, pre-2013 rules

for comparison with older reports

Good-air days

AQI 50 or below

Days monitored

365

full year

Unhealthy days by year, scored two ways

EPA changed what an AQI of 100 means in 2013 and again in 2015, so a count published before those changes is not comparable to one published after. Each panel below applies a single fixed rulebook to every year, so each is internally consistent. Why this matters.

Scored by today's rules

Scored by the pre-2013 rules

Ozone since 1990

The index counts above only start in 2000, because nationwide fine-particle monitoring did not exist before 1999 and an index without it would measure the monitoring network rather than the air. Ozone does have a 35-year record. This is El Paso, TX's, from EPA's long-running trend monitors: 72 ppb in 1990 to 74 ppb in 2024, 3% higher.

Peak ozone, 1990 to 2024

Annual fourth-highest daily maximum 8-hour ozone, parts per billion, averaged across 1 long-running monitor in the area. The dashed line is the current standard, 70 ppb. Holding the monitor set still is what makes a 35-year comparison meaningful, and it is also why these values differ from the design value used for compliance. Source: EPA air quality statistics by city.

What 2025 looked like

Air quality category	Days	Share of monitored days
Good	66	18%
Moderate	236	65%
Unhealthy for sensitive groups	33	9%
Unhealthy or worse	30	8%

Median AQI 70 · 90th-percentile AQI 123 · worst day 2122. Scored under current rules.

What drove the unhealthy days

Of the 63 days above 100 in 2025, 4 were driven by ozone and 12 by fine particles, with 47 from another pollutant. The two behave differently. Ozone peaks on hot sunny afternoons; fine particles now spike mainly with wildfire smoke. In the eastern United States, ozone has stopped responding to emission cuts: nitrogen oxide emissions kept falling after 2014 and ambient ozone barely moved.

The unhealthy days in 2025

Every day the index passed 100, what it reached, and which pollutant drove it. 8 of these 63 would not have counted as unhealthy under the pre-2013 rules.

Date	Peak AQI	Driven by	Pre-2013 score
Jan 4	158	Coarse particles	158
Jan 7	283	Coarse particles	283
Jan 20	118	Coarse particles	118
Jan 30	183	Coarse particles	183
Feb 3	104	Fine particles	93 (not unhealthy)
Feb 4	130	Fine particles	115
Feb 6	102	Fine particles	100 (not unhealthy)
Feb 7	101	Fine particles	90 (not unhealthy)
Feb 8	103	Fine particles	92 (not unhealthy)
Feb 9	137	Fine particles	120
Feb 10	156	Coarse particles	156
Feb 11	633	Coarse particles	620
Feb 12	161	Fine particles	153
Feb 14	179	Coarse particles	179
Feb 15	113	Coarse particles	113
Feb 25	112	Coarse particles	112
Feb 27	283	Coarse particles	283
Mar 2	157	Fine particles	147
Mar 3	1059	Coarse particles	1003
Mar 4	383	Coarse particles	394
Mar 5	208	Fine particles	202
Mar 6	446	Coarse particles	451
Mar 7	414	Coarse particles	423
Mar 11	122	Coarse particles	122
Mar 13	194	Coarse particles	194
Mar 14	607	Coarse particles	596
Mar 18	2122	Coarse particles	1959
Mar 26	157	Coarse particles	157
Mar 27	116	Coarse particles	116
Mar 28	106	Coarse particles	106
Mar 29	223	Coarse particles	223
Apr 1	1342	Coarse particles	1257
Apr 2	121	Coarse particles	121
Apr 16	123	Coarse particles	123
Apr 17	710	Coarse particles	689
Apr 18	762	Coarse particles	736
Apr 19	123	Coarse particles	123
Apr 27	1139	Coarse particles	1075
Apr 28	101	Coarse particles	101
May 2	158	Fine particles	151
May 11	129	Ozone	109
May 13	403	Coarse particles	413
May 14	189	Coarse particles	189
May 18	117	Coarse particles	117
May 19	135	Fine particles	125
May 30	106	Fine particles	94 (not unhealthy)
Jun 2	112	Coarse particles	112
Jun 9	121	Coarse particles	121
Jun 10	117	Coarse particles	117
Jun 15	240	Coarse particles	240
Jun 16	113	Coarse particles	113
Jun 17	103	Coarse particles	103
Jul 10	159	Coarse particles	159
Jul 11	151	Coarse particles	151
Jul 12	278	Coarse particles	278
Jul 15	101	Ozone	87 (not unhealthy)
Jul 26	101	Ozone	87 (not unhealthy)
Aug 8	115	Ozone	100 (not unhealthy)
Nov 9	132	Coarse particles	132
Nov 15	106	Coarse particles	106
Dec 9	102	Coarse particles	102
Dec 10	122	Coarse particles	122
Dec 24	103	Coarse particles	103

Statewide context

El Paso, TX sits in Texas.

The full series

Year	Unhealthy days, current rules	Pre-2013 rules	Days monitored
2000	42	31	366
2001	43	24	365
2002	50	36	365
2003	49	34	365
2004	35	24	366
2005	42	27	365
2006	60	43	365
2007	45	24	365
2008	35	20	366
2009	11	3	365
2010	16	10	365
2011	20	12	365
2012	24	11	366
2013	14	9	365
2014	9	2	365
2015	7	3	365
2016	6	2	366
2017	23	11	365
2018	17	9	365
2019	13	7	365
2020	19	7	366
2021	19	6	365
2022	20	10	365
2023	19	10	365
2024	63	43	366
2025	63	55	365

Sources

EPA AirData daily monitor files, recomputed under both breakpoint tables. Methods and validation.
Download the full dataset for every state and metro.