El Paso had the ninth-most polluted air among major U.S. cities in 2024, according to one global report released Tuesday – and that was before a series of intense dust storms last week created some of the worst air quality conditions ever recorded in the city.
A Switzerland-based organization that aggregates air quality data from tens of thousands of monitors around the globe, IQAir published its 2024 World Air Quality report that measures small particulate matter pollution which often results from dust, industrial activity and vehicle exhaust.
El Paso recorded an average concentration of 7.8 micrograms of particulates per cubic meter of air.
Fine particulate matter pollution, called PM 2.5, refers to very small particles that are 2.5 micrometers in diameter or smaller. A human hair, for comparison, is 50 micrometers to 180 micrometers in diameter.
“I hope that residents, particularly in El Paso, take a look at the report and the data in the report and really use it to inform themselves about the quality of the air that they’re breathing,” Christi Chester Schroeder, IQAir’s air quality science manager, said in a briefing with reporters.
“Texas actually has a pretty sparse air quality monitoring network relative to its size, and so not all residents can always have hyper-local air quality data. So, it’s important to raise awareness,” she said.
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Daily particulate matter pollution in El Paso is the highest it’s been for this time of year since at least 2000.
Because PM 2.5 particles are so tiny, they can enter various bodily systems and cause or exacerbate asthma, cancer, lung disease and the chance of stroke. Pregnant women and young children are particularly susceptible to negative effects of particulate matter pollution, which can also affect heart and brain functions, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
“Exposure to high levels of fine particulate matter has been linked to respiratory diseases, impaired cognitive development, and an increased risk of chronic health conditions later in life,” Chester Schroeder said.
Three other Texas cities – San Antonio, Houston and Fort Worth – ranked higher than El Paso among the most polluted U.S. metros. Los Angeles had the highest level of particulate pollution in the U.S., according to IQAir.
While IQAir’s report only covers 2024, El Paso’s air quality this year is among the worst that air monitors here have recorded since data began being collected about 25 years ago.
In the Chamizal neighborhood in South Central El Paso, one air quality monitor overseen by state and federal environmental regulators has been collecting daily data since 1999. Four of the top-five most polluted days the Chamizal monitor has ever recorded came during the dust storms last week, from March 3 through March 6, according to figures from the Environmental Protection Agency.
An air quality monitor in Socorro in far East El Paso County also recorded its top two worst days last week – on March 3 and March 6.
El Paso has been historically dusty this year in part because 2023 and 2024 were the hottest on record for the city, coupled with a continuous drought since August 2023. That’s been one of the longest periods of uninterrupted drought on record in El Paso, drying out vegetation that would normally anchor dirt to the surface.
The drought here has intensified more recently. Since October, the entire county has been experiencing a “severe” drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. So far in 2025, El Paso has seen just 0.07 inches of precipitation, compared with a historical norm of 0.9 inches of rainfall or snow by this time of year, according to the National Weather Service.
Meanwhile, March wind speeds in El Paso have averaged 12.1 miles per hour, faster than the typical 9.9 mile-per-hour wind speeds the city usually experiences this time of year, according to figures from the NWS. The stronger-than-normal winds have helped kick up more dust than usual.
And the NWS is predicting another round of strong winds and blowing dust this week, from Thursday afternoon through Friday evening.
“Air quality and climate change are deeply interconnected. Both issues share a common driver: the burning of fossil fuels,” Chester Schroeder said. “Climate change influences weather patterns, which in turn affects the dispersion and removal of PM 2.5 from the atmosphere.”
To address particulate pollution, IQAir officials said policymakers in El Paso and elsewhere should push to move away from fossil fuels to other sources of energy to generate electricity. They should also hasten the adoption of electric vehicles since combustion engines produce particulates, officials said.
In 2023, about 58% of the electricity that El Paso Electric supplied came from the utility’s local natural gas-fired power plants or from other power plants the utility bought and imported electricity from. About 42% of the city’s electricity that year came from non-fossil fuel sources – the solar farms and the nuclear power plant El Paso Electric partially owns. The utility has been increasingly adding solar generation.
Meanwhile, there were about 6,200 electric vehicles registered in El Paso County as of last week, an increase from 4,300 a year ago, according to the Dallas-Fort Worth Clean Cities Coalition. But EVs make up just 0.86% of the more than 718,000 total vehicles in the county.
Vehicles driving on unpaved dirt roads in parts of El Paso County and across the border in Ciudad Juarez are a major source of dust in the region.
“Paving streets can be a tremendously effective way to reduce air pollution,” said Frank Hammes, CEO of IQAir.
The city of El Paso along with other local governments has been developing a climate action plan for the last two years, which could offer some policies to address air pollution. But it will likely take another year or so for local officials to finish crafting the plan. And how the city will ultimately find funding to carry out climate-related policies laid out in the climate action plan – such as installing solar panels on city-owned buildings – is far from clear.
Still, despite its high ranking among U.S. cities, El Paso’s air quality last year was decent by global standards.
Across the U.S., the nationwide average concentration of particulates is 7.1 micrograms per cubic meter, about 8% lower than the typical particulate pollution in El Paso last year. Among 138 countries included in the report, the U.S. was among the least-polluted nations, ranking 116th.
The African nation Chad had the highest particulate pollution of any country on Earth last year, according to IQAir, with an average particulate concentration of 91.8 micrograms per cubic meter. The most polluted major city in the world in 2024 was New Delhi, the capital of India.
IQAir collected data from 40,000 monitoring stations throughout nearly 9,000 cities. Each monitor collects hourly air quality data, which is used to create city-level averages. Only cities that reported consistent data were included in the report.
“The goal is to raise awareness, to help people protect their health,” Chester Schroeder said. “There is an amazing amount of power that comes in grassroots efforts. When people are aware and informed of what’s going on around them, they can then put pressure on local governments to be better.”
The post El Paso ranked among most-polluted major U.S. cities in 2024. And 2025 may be worse. appeared first on El Paso Matters.
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