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Today's air quality at the plaza in plain language — and what usually moves it when it's bad.
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Most days at 7,000 feet the answer is good — the days it isn't, the reason is usually smoke.
Good Air quality is satisfactory and pollution poses little or no risk — no reason to change any plans.
| Day | Air quality |
|---|---|
| Mon, Aug 24 | Moderate |
| Tue, Aug 25 | Moderate |
| Wed, Aug 26 | Moderate |
| Thu, Aug 27 | Moderate |
Wildfire smoke — sometimes from fires hundreds of miles away — is the main thing that takes Taos's air from good to bad, mostly late spring through summer. The Is Something Burning? page on this site shows what is actually burning nearby, including prescribed burns.
Town sits near 7,000 feet; Taos Ski Valley sits above 9,200 and often runs twenty degrees colder — it can be snowing hard up there while town is sunny. This reading is for the town plaza; conditions up NM 150 can differ.
April and May bring hard, dry southwest winds across the sagebrush plateau. Blowing dust can nudge particulate readings up even with nothing burning anywhere.
Updated . These are modelled estimates for the area around Taos Plaza, not readings from a street monitor — air right beside a busy road can be worse than the area-wide picture. The official index where you are is AirNow, from the US EPA. Official forecast: airnow.gov. Air quality data by Open-Meteo (CC BY 4.0), based on Copernicus CAMS.
Good
US Air Quality Index (EPA) 49 · Taos Plaza