Bad Air Days in Taos County, New Mexico: under 1 a Year
under 1 bad air days a year
Rare: among the cleanest-air counties EPA monitors. Ranked 941 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 August. Averaged over 2016 to 2025.
What actually helps here
- Bad air days are rare here. A standard furnace filter is enough; no purifier needed for outdoor air.
- On the odd bad day, check AirNow and keep windows shut.
Better or worse than it was
In 2000 to 2009 this county averaged under 1 bad days a year; in 2016 to 2025, under 1. Not much has changed. The worst recent year was 2021, with 1 bad day on 323 monitored days.
| Date | AQI | Main pollutant |
|---|---|---|
| 2021-08-08 | 108 | PM2.5 |
| 2022-04-22 | 86 | PM2.5 |
| 2024-10-12 | 76 | PM2.5 |
| 2022-05-01 | 75 | PM2.5 |
| 2022-01-03 | 74 | PM2.5 |
An ordinary day in Taos
Across 3,550 monitored days from 2016 to 2025, the air in Taos County rated Good on 92% of them, more often than the 72% typical of monitored counties, and Moderate on 8%. The median day sat at AQI 21; one day in ten went above 44.
The pollutant setting the AQI on an ordinary day here:
- fine particles (PM2.5)100%3,550 days
Taos County by year
| Year | Days monitored | Good | Moderate | Over 100 | Over 150 | Median AQI | Highest AQI |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025* | 356 | 352 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 16 | 52 |
| 2024 | 365 | 354 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 16 | 76 |
| 2023 | 350 | 332 | 18 | 0 | 0 | 20 | 67 |
| 2022 | 359 | 323 | 36 | 0 | 0 | 19 | 86 |
| 2021 | 323 | 290 | 32 | 1 | 0 | 28 | 108 |
| 2020 | 360 | 310 | 50 | 0 | 0 | 27 | 68 |
| 2019 | 358 | 315 | 43 | 0 | 0 | 21 | 73 |
| 2018 | 365 | 319 | 46 | 0 | 0 | 30 | 69 |
| 2017 | 352 | 328 | 24 | 0 | 0 | 16 | 63 |
| 2016 | 362 | 349 | 13 | 0 | 0 | 16 | 59 |
| 2015 | 363 | 358 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 17 | 67 |
| 2014 | 356 | 349 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 19 | 59 |
| 2013 | 359 | 331 | 28 | 0 | 0 | 20 | 60 |
| 2012 | 366 | 355 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 22 | 59 |
| 2011 | 364 | 325 | 39 | 0 | 0 | 19 | 87 |
| 2010 | 355 | 347 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 19 | 66 |
*2025 may be a partial year in EPA's file.
New Mexico compared
- Dona Ana County28/yr
- Eddy County19/yr
- Bernalillo County15/yr
- San Juan County6/yr
- Luna County5/yr
- Lea County4/yr
- Sandoval County2/yr
- Valencia 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.