NM Border Air Quality Blog

March 23 and 24 -I missed posting on the 23rd due to travel and no access to the web. Back to normal now and trying to catch up.

March 23 - Winds were low at most sites, no more than 4 m/s on an hourly averaged basis. Particulates were correspondingly low across the region today.

Not much excitement on the drive back except there is still snow on the San Jacinto and San Gorgonio Mountains in southern Calif. with areas receiving 2 to 4 inches of rain over the past 7 days. Below is a view of the San Jacinto Wilderness with peaks at around 10,000 feet.

 

Compared to our area over the last 7 days we remain bone dry. Below is a graphic of our rainfall over the last 7 days. The colors show rainfall in inches of water. Only the northwest part of our study area has received any measurable amount.

March 24 - It turned out to be a windy day but not enough for a regional dust event. With the exception of a few hourly samples PM10 remained in the good range. At the Sunland Park City Yard station PM10 remained above 150 µg/m3 from 11 am to 3 pm today. Hourly averaged PM2.5 concentrations peaked at 48 µg/m3 at 1 pm.

 

We had a few high clouds in the afternoon as seen from the afternoon MODIS pass.

The AQI outlook for Friday looks to be good air quality for all of NM.