San Juan-Carolina-Caguas, PR Air Quality

EPA monitor data through 2025 · Updated September 02, 2026 · Methods

In 2025, San Juan-Carolina-Caguas, PR recorded 2 days above an Air Quality Index of 100, the level at which EPA begins warning sensitive groups, out of 365 days with monitoring data. The rest of the year was 211 Good days and 141 Moderate days. Most of the bad days were driven by fine particles. Under the AQI rules that applied before 2013, the same air would have scored 0 days. Since 2000, unhealthy days are 100% lower on a consistent definition.

Unhealthy days, 2025
2
AQI above 100
Same air, pre-2013 rules
0
for comparison with older reports
Good-air days
211
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

San Juan-Carolina-Caguas, PR: days above AQI 100 by year, current rules 0 10 20 30 40 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025 2000: 16 days 2001: 3 days 2002: 0 days 2003: 0 days 2004: 0 days 2005: 0 days 2006: 0 days 2007: 1 days 2008: 1 days 2009: 0 days 2010: 0 days 2011: 0 days 2012: 0 days 2013: 1 days 2014: 1 days 2015: 0 days 2016: 5 days 2017: 7 days (incomplete monitoring) 2018: 13 days 2019: 19 days 2020: 15 days 2021: 13 days 2022: 0 days 2023: 13 days 2024: 43 days 2025: 2 days

Scored by the pre-2013 rules

San Juan-Carolina-Caguas, PR: days above AQI 100 by year, pre-2013 rules 0 10 20 30 40 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025 2000: 16 days 2001: 1 days 2002: 0 days 2003: 0 days 2004: 0 days 2005: 0 days 2006: 0 days 2007: 1 days 2008: 1 days 2009: 0 days 2010: 0 days 2011: 0 days 2012: 0 days 2013: 0 days 2014: 1 days 2015: 0 days 2016: 3 days 2017: 6 days (incomplete monitoring) 2018: 11 days 2019: 12 days 2020: 14 days 2021: 7 days 2022: 0 days 2023: 11 days 2024: 32 days 2025: 0 days
Faded columns mark years with fewer than 300 monitored days, where the count is not comparable.

What 2025 looked like

Air quality categoryDaysShare of days with an AQI
Good21160%
Moderate14140%
Unhealthy for sensitive groups20%
Unhealthy or worse00%

Median AQI 46 · 90th-percentile AQI 63 · worst day 102. Scored under current rules, out of 354 days with an AQI.

What drove the unhealthy days

Of the 2 days above 100 in 2025, 0 were driven by ozone and 2 by fine particles. The two behave differently. Ozone peaks on hot sunny afternoons; fine particles now spike mainly with wildfire smoke.

The unhealthy days in 2025

Every day the index passed 100, what it reached, and which pollutant drove it. 2 of these 2 would not have counted as unhealthy under the pre-2013 rules.

DatePeak AQIDriven byPre-2013 score
Jun 1102Fine particles 91 (not unhealthy)
Jun 2101Fine particles 91 (not unhealthy)

Statewide context

San Juan-Carolina-Caguas, PR sits in Puerto Rico.

Days in each air quality category, by year

How many days fell in each AQI category, for every year with an AQI on record. Categories are scored under EPA's current breakpoints. A year with fewer than 300 days is marked, because a short year lowers every count for reasons that have nothing to do with the air.

YearGoodModerate Unhealthy for sensitive groupsUnhealthy or worse Days with an AQI
2000 10025016 0366
2001 1352273 0365
2002 1582070 0365
2003 1661990 0365
2004 2621040 0366
2005 2231420 0365
2006 2211440 0365
2007 2541101 0365
2008 314510 1366
2009 329360 0365
2010 331340 0365
2011 330350 0365
2012 278880 0366
2013 322421 0365
2014 326380 1365
2015 292730 0365
2016 2461155 0366
2017 (partial) 1061426 1255
2018 1072457 6365
2019 17617018 1365
2020 290617 8366
2021 19915012 1362
2022 276850 0361
2023 18612011 2319
2024 18513831 12366
2025 2111412 0354

Good is AQI 0–50, Moderate 51–100, Unhealthy for sensitive groups 101–150. “Unhealthy or worse” combines the Unhealthy, Very Unhealthy and Hazardous categories, which are shown together because most areas record too few of each to report separately. The four columns sum to the last one by construction. These counts exclude sulphur dioxide, following EPA, which drops SO₂ from county and metro summaries because it is too localized to describe a whole area.

The full series

The same years scored two ways, with the pollutant that drove the days above 100. EPA's files record which pollutant set each day's AQI; they do not attribute days to wildfire smoke, so no column here claims to.

YearUnhealthy days, current rulesOf which ozone Of which fine particlesPre-2013 rulesDays monitored
200016 0 0 16366
20013 0 3 1365
20020 0 0 0365
20030 0 0 0365
20040 0 0 0366
20050 0 0 0365
20060 0 0 0365
20071 0 1 1365
20081 1 0 1366
20090 0 0 0365
20100 0 0 0365
20110 0 0 0365
20120 0 0 0366
20131 0 1 0365
20141 0 0 1365
20150 0 0 0365
20165 2 1 3366
20177 0 6 6256
201813 0 11 11365
201919 0 11 12365
202015 3 10 14366
202113 0 13 7365
20220 0 0 0364
202313 0 12 11362
202443 0 43 32366
20252 0 2 0365

Sources