NM Border Air Quality Blog

Aug. 21 - Haze hits the borderland today

If you looked outside this afternoon and looked up you would have noticed a light haze. Particularly noticeable later in the afternoon with the setting sun. A quick run of the Hysplit model in the backward mode showed the source region of the haze. Below is a backtrajectory map from Las Cruces examining the air 5 days in the past. The past 24-hour showed the air from the southeast along the Rio Grande. Going back even further the airmass made a turn along the path of the high pressure center and passed through the upper Midwest and through the northern Plains.

Knowing that there are numerous wildfires burning in the west and looking at the smoke plume analysis maps you can be fairly sure that the haze in our area is from those fires.