NM Border Air Quality Blog

Feb. 12 - Low wind high PM event tonight. Low was 21F at the Las Cruces airport and high temperature was 61F. Our climatological normals at NMSU for today are 32/63F so we are still a little below the normal but not far as last week. We expected light southeasterly winds for most of the region in the afternoon. Below is the 21 UTC (2 pm MST) surface winds from the RUC model.

Peak hourly PM10 was 280 µg/m3 at 8 pm. At the same time peak PM2.5 was 91 µg/m3.

 

and similarly at the Anthony Elementary station but not as intense.

 

The Las Cruces Holman Road station showed elevated PM10 in the evening as well. Peak hourly PM10 was 141 µg/m3 at 7 pm. Winds were 4 m/s from the east at the time. I was driving along highway 70 about that same time and I didn't notice anything unusual near the highway.

The AQI forecast for Sunday is looking like more moderate air quality across the Paso del Norte and into Dona Ana County.