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New Mexico Air Quality

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

In 2025, New Mexico recorded 84 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 ozone. Under the AQI rules that applied before 2013, the same air would have scored 63 days. Since 2000, unhealthy days are 50% 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

How to read a statewide figure. The Air Quality Index describes one place at one time. A statewide number is the worst monitor anywhere in the state on each day, so it answers “was the air unhealthy somewhere in New Mexico?” — not “what did a typical resident breathe?” In a large state with many monitors it will read high even if most of the state was clean. EPA publishes the AQI for metropolitan areas rather than states for exactly this reason. For what people actually breathed, use the metro pages below.

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

What 2025 looked like

Air quality category	Days	Share of monitored days
Good	35	10%
Moderate	246	67%
Unhealthy for sensitive groups	63	17%
Unhealthy or worse	21	6%

Median AQI 77 · 90th-percentile AQI 127 · worst day 528. Scored under current rules.

What drove the unhealthy days

Of the 84 days above 100 in 2025, 23 were driven by ozone and 15 by fine particles, with 46 from another pollutant. The two behave differently. Ozone peaks on hot sunny afternoons; fine particles now spike mainly with wildfire smoke. In the western United States, ozone is a different problem: the floor is rising, with even the cleanest summer days at high elevation now near 40 ppb, and bad years track wildfire seasons. Domestic emission cuts have less room to work against that.

The unhealthy days in 2025

Every day the index passed 100, what it reached, and which pollutant drove it. 21 of these 84 would not have counted as unhealthy under the pre-2013 rules.

Date	Peak AQI	Driven by	Pre-2013 score
Jan 6	107	Coarse particles	107
Jan 7	202	Coarse particles	202
Jan 20	136	Coarse particles	136
Jan 30	115	Coarse particles	115
Feb 10	116	Coarse particles	116
Feb 11	375	Coarse particles	385
Feb 14	127	Coarse particles	127
Feb 26	130	Coarse particles	130
Feb 27	297	Coarse particles	297
Mar 2	119	Coarse particles	119
Mar 3	338	Coarse particles	342
Mar 4	188	Coarse particles	188
Mar 6	342	Fine particles	296
Mar 7	141	Fine particles	139
Mar 13	391	Coarse particles	402
Mar 14	424	Coarse particles	432
Mar 18	368	Fine particles	310
Mar 29	159	Fine particles	152
Apr 1	497	Coarse particles	497
Apr 5	112	Coarse particles	112
Apr 10	105	Ozone	90 (not unhealthy)
Apr 11	143	Ozone	119
Apr 15	136	Coarse particles	136
Apr 16	110	Coarse particles	110
Apr 17	528	Coarse particles	525
Apr 18	223	Coarse particles	223
Apr 19	115	Fine particles	108
Apr 21	101	Ozone	87 (not unhealthy)
Apr 22	105	Fine particles	94 (not unhealthy)
Apr 27	245	Coarse particles	245
Apr 28	140	Fine particles	122
May 2	154	Fine particles	139
May 3	104	Fine particles	93 (not unhealthy)
May 4	116	Fine particles	103
May 5	110	Fine particles	97 (not unhealthy)
May 11	126	Ozone	106
May 13	375	Coarse particles	385
May 14	393	Coarse particles	404
May 19	123	Coarse particles	123
May 20	101	Ozone	87 (not unhealthy)
May 21	129	Ozone	109
May 22	101	Fine particles	90 (not unhealthy)
May 25	122	Ozone	104
May 27	101	Ozone	87 (not unhealthy)
May 28	136	Ozone	114
May 30	149	Coarse particles	149
May 31	321	Coarse particles	324
Jun 10	127	Coarse particles	127
Jun 11	133	Ozone	111
Jun 12	119	Ozone	101
Jun 13	105	Ozone	90 (not unhealthy)
Jun 15	146	Coarse particles	146
Jun 18	115	Ozone	100 (not unhealthy)
Jun 19	105	Ozone	90 (not unhealthy)
Jun 20	107	Coarse particles	107
Jun 29	156	Coarse particles	156
Jun 30	147	Coarse particles	147
Jul 4	107	Fine particles	95 (not unhealthy)
Jul 5	125	Fine particles	110
Jul 10	146	Coarse particles	146
Jul 11	124	Coarse particles	124
Jul 12	194	Coarse particles	194
Jul 13	101	Ozone	90 (not unhealthy)
Jul 18	201	Coarse particles	201
Jul 21	108	Coarse particles	108
Jul 26	129	Ozone	109
Aug 7	112	Ozone	97 (not unhealthy)
Aug 8	101	Ozone	87 (not unhealthy)
Aug 10	111	Coarse particles	111
Aug 12	112	Ozone	97 (not unhealthy)
Aug 22	115	Ozone	100 (not unhealthy)
Aug 28	101	Ozone	87 (not unhealthy)
Aug 30	105	Fine particles	93 (not unhealthy)
Sep 14	105	Coarse particles	105
Sep 25	115	Ozone	100 (not unhealthy)
Oct 22	101	Ozone	87 (not unhealthy)
Nov 13	101	Nitrogen dioxide	101
Dec 8	105	Nitrogen dioxide	105
Dec 9	114	Nitrogen dioxide	114
Dec 10	101	Nitrogen dioxide	101
Dec 17	105	Nitrogen dioxide	105
Dec 19	104	Nitrogen dioxide	104
Dec 22	107	Nitrogen dioxide	107
Dec 30	102	Nitrogen dioxide	102

Metro areas in New Mexico

Ranked by unhealthy days in their latest year. These are the geographies EPA actually reports the AQI for.

Metro area	Unhealthy days	Pre-2013 rules	Main driver
Las Cruces, NM	48	38	fine particles
Carlsbad-Artesia, NM	23	10	ozone
Albuquerque, NM	21	19	fine particles
Deming, NM	18	18	ozone and fine particles equally
Hobbs, NM	8	6	fine particles
Espa¤ola, NM	0	0	ozone and fine particles equally
Farmington, NM	0	0	ozone and fine particles equally
Santa Fe, NM	0	0	ozone and fine particles equally
Silver City, NM	0	0	ozone and fine particles equally
Taos, NM	0	0	ozone and fine particles equally

The full series

Year	Unhealthy days, current rules	Pre-2013 rules	Days monitored
2000	76	42	366
2001	56	22	365
2002	79	47	365
2003	93	53	365
2004	52	39	366
2005	58	37	365
2006	76	49	365
2007	77	37	365
2008	61	40	366
2009	23	15	365
2010	22	14	365
2011	64	36	365
2012	55	26	366
2013	63	41	365
2014	23	16	365
2015	18	10	365
2016	17	12	366
2017	54	31	365
2018	60	29	365
2019	42	17	365
2020	34	17	366
2021	64	43	365
2022	74	45	365
2023	42	22	365
2024	79	41	366
2025	84	63	365

Sources

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