# New Mexico air quality today — live AQI by metro > Source: https://breathecheck.com/air-quality/us/new-mexico/ > Live AQI for 2 New Mexico metros, updated hourly from EPA AirNow. Where the state's air is worst right now, and how far apart its cities are. # New Mexico air quality today Updated 14 Sep 2026, 22:12 UTC · LIVE 2 metros tracked Across the 2 New Mexico metros BreatheCheck measures, air is worst right now in Albuquerque at AQI 50 (Good) and cleanest in Las Cruces at AQI 49 . ## Which New Mexico city has the worst air quality right now? | # | Metro | AQI | UV now | Dominant | | 1 | Albuquerque | 50 Good | 2.3 | O3 | | 2 | Las Cruces no page yet | 49 Good | 3.9 | O3 | ## What is the UV index in New Mexico today? The strongest UV in New Mexico today is 9.6 (Very High) in Las Cruces, arriving around 1pm local time. The mildest of the 2 metros we model here peaks at 7.6 in Albuquerque. UV is modelled, not measured — unlike the AQI above it, which comes off an instrument. Hour by hour in Albuquerque → ## Basin ozone, valley inversions, two regulators The southeast is where New Mexico’s ozone gets made rather than received. Eddy and Lea counties sit over the Permian Basin, and strong sun and dry air run the reaction quickly for most of the year on emissions that are rural and industrial at the same time. The state answered with a rule rather than a forecast. The Environment Department’s Ozone Precursor Pollutants rule, in effect since August 5, 2022, limits volatile organic compound and nitrogen oxide emissions from oil and gas operations in counties where measured ozone has reached 95 percent of the federal standard. Eight counties were on that list when it took effect: Chaves, Doña Ana, Eddy, Lea, Rio Arriba, Sandoval, San Juan and Valencia. Bernalillo County is not among them, and could not be. Air inside the county is regulated by the Albuquerque–Bernalillo County Air Quality Control Board and administered by the city, while the Environment Department’s Air Quality Bureau holds jurisdiction over the rest of the state outside tribal lands. Albuquerque’s own problem is a cold-season one, shaped by a trench. The city’s air quality program attributes the winter buildup to temperature inversions that hold particulates near the ground in the Rio Grande valley, and issues woodburning restrictions between October and February on that basis, with exemptions for EPA-certified appliances and for households where a wood device is the only heat. Albuquerque is the one New Mexico metro with a page here, which leaves the Permian counties and the Four Corners described by the table alone. ## Where do these New Mexico readings come from? 2 of the 2 metros here report from a named regulatory monitor — Albuquerque, Las Cruces. The dominant pollutant across New Mexico today is O3 . We track 2 metropolitan areas in New Mexico, not the whole state, and 1 of them has a page of its own. There is no state-wide average here on purpose: averaging 2 metros into one figure would invent a value for all the ground between them. How we measure, and what we refuse to estimate → ## Neighbouring states Smoke and inversions do not stop at a state line, so when New Mexico looks wrong the answer is often next door. ## Related Updated 14 Sep 2026, 22:12 UTC