Dust
March 18, 2025 El Paso Borderland sand-and-dust storm
Daily PM2.5 peaked at 285.8 µg/m³ near El Paso across 1 covered metro home to 879,392 people. 1 metro placed a top-ten day in their record.
Counting the extra PM2.5 above each metro's typical day, this event handed the average affected resident ≈ 12.6 cigarettes. Across everyone living in the affected metros, that is the collective equivalent of ≈ 11 million cigarettes. An awareness illustration of outdoor exposure at 22 µg/m³ per cigarette (Berkeley Earth), counting only the event's ranked days; not a medical dose.
Episode peak
-- cigarettes
The smoke map's scale, replayed over this event: the surface interpolates between covered metros' daily records, framed to the affected region. Hover for a reading, click a metro to pin it to the card. Days a monitor did not report draw nothing.
What happened, in the record
NWS and WMO evidence identifies a major March 18 El Paso Borderland wind, sand, and dust storm on the PM2.5 event date.
Affected metros
| Metro | Peak PM2.5 | Cigarettes, whole event | Peak day | All-time standing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| El Paso, TX | 285.8 µg/m³ | 13.0 | Mar 18, 2025 | #2 of its top days |
"Cigarettes, whole event" totals a metro's ranked event days at 22 µg/m³ per cigarette: what a person outdoors there breathed across the event, as the illustration. "All-time standing" is where this episode's days sit in each metro's ranked record (worst-area measure, since 1999). Full local context is on each metro's Air Records page.
The evidence
Official records
- NOAA Storm Events Dust Storm, TEXAS, Mar 18, 2025 "A strong upper low was moving across the Rockies with an associated cold front at the surface moving through the Borderland. Winds ahead and just behind the cold front brought gusts to 75 mph which created areas of blowi…" record →
- NOAA Storm Events Dust Storm, TEXAS, Mar 18, 2025 "A strong upper low was moving across the Rockies with an associated cold front at the surface moving through the Borderland. Winds ahead and just behind the cold front brought gusts to 75 mph which created areas of blowi…" record →
Agency and publisher pages 2
- Southwest Weather Bulletin The NWS records a major March 18 wind and dust storm striking the Borderland, including east El Paso, with near-zero visibility from blowing sand and dust.
- WMO highlights sand and dust storm hotspots, impacts and research WMO identifies March 18 as an El Paso sand-and-dust-storm peak, reporting more than six hours of continuous conditions and exceptionally high PM10 measurements.
Cited authorities: National Weather Service El Paso/Santa Teresa
Status and provenance
Research preview: this record carries research-only status and its boundaries, cause, and name may change as evidence review completes. Grouping policy common_sense_root_cause_grouping.v2. The cause label reflects the assembled evidence above, not an IAQng detection formula.