Bad Air Days in Luna County, New Mexico: 5 a Year
5 bad air days a year
More bad air days than three quarters of monitored counties. Ranked 210 of 996 monitored counties, where 1 is worst.
What makes them bad: mostly particles: smoke and dust (100% particle days).
Which months to watch
- J
- F
- M
- A
- M
- J
- J
- A
- S
- O
- N
- D
Most bad days here fall in March and April and June. Averaged over 2016 to 2025.
What actually helps here
- Particles (wildfire smoke, dust) cause enough bad days here to matter. A HEPA purifier sized to your bedroom removes them; run it with windows shut on bad days.
- Upgrade the furnace or AC filter to MERV 13 so the whole house is filtered, not just one room.
The worst days on file
The worst recent year was 2025, with 18 bad days on 360 monitored days.
| Date | AQI | Main pollutant |
|---|---|---|
| 2022-02-23 | 806 | PM10 |
| 2019-04-10 | 630 | PM10 |
| 2021-06-13 | 462 | PM10 |
| 2020-06-11 | 353 | PM10 |
| 2025-05-31 | 321 | PM10 |
Most days, not the worst ones
Across 3,588 monitored days from 2016 to 2025, the air in Luna County rated Good on 93% of them, more often than the 72% typical of monitored counties, and Moderate on 5%. The median day sat at AQI 17; one day in ten went above 41.
The pollutant setting the AQI on an ordinary day here:
- coarse dust (PM10)100%3,588 days
Every recent year on file
| Year | Days monitored | Good | Moderate | Over 100 | Over 150 | Median AQI | Highest AQI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025* | 360 | 305 | 37 | 18 | 9 | 17 | 321 |
| 2024 | 365 | 341 | 20 | 4 | 1 | 17 | 153 |
| 2023 | 351 | 334 | 15 | 2 | 1 | 16 | 157 |
| 2022 | 358 | 317 | 32 | 9 | 3 | 17 | 806 |
| 2021 | 362 | 339 | 20 | 3 | 1 | 19 | 462 |
| 2020 | 354 | 335 | 18 | 1 | 1 | 19 | 353 |
| 2019 | 361 | 349 | 10 | 2 | 1 | 12 | 630 |
| 2018 | 357 | 343 | 11 | 3 | 0 | 16 | 137 |
| 2017 | 360 | 340 | 15 | 5 | 0 | 19 | 136 |
| 2016 | 360 | 338 | 19 | 3 | 2 | 17 | 162 |
| 2015 | 355 | 351 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 16 | 75 |
| 2014 | 364 | 305 | 55 | 4 | 2 | 44 | 224 |
| 2013 | 365 | 241 | 113 | 11 | 7 | 46 | 562 |
| 2012 | 364 | 224 | 129 | 11 | 4 | 46 | 1049 |
| 2011 | 365 | 299 | 57 | 9 | 4 | 41 | 622 |
| 2010 | 365 | 342 | 19 | 4 | 2 | 39 | 411 |
*2025 may be a partial year in EPA's file.
Nearby counties on file
- Dona Ana County28/yr
- Eddy County19/yr
- Bernalillo County15/yr
- San Juan County6/yr
- Lea County4/yr
- Sandoval County2/yr
- Valencia County1/yr
- Rio Arriba County1/yr
How this is counted
A bad air day is a day the county's daily AQI from EPA AirData went above 100, the level where EPA tells children, older adults and people with asthma or heart disease to cut back outdoors. Monitors do not run every day, so yearly counts are scaled to 365 days. This is the record, not today's air: for that, check AirNow. More on the method in how the county numbers are made, on the AQI 100 line in what counts as a bad air day.