SmogRank / Mecca / New Orleans

Mecca vs New Orleans: PM2.5 compared

Over the last year, Mecca's air was about 1.8× as polluted as New Orleans's: PM2.5 averaged 12.1 µg/m³ against 6.9, on the 80 days both cities were measured. Mecca had the dirtier air on 54 of those days, New Orleans on 25. Mecca was over the WHO's daily guideline of 15 µg/m³ on 25 of them, New Orleans on 0.

Right now

Mecca#87on the 24-hour board of 2,002, at 77 US AQI (23.1 µg/m³)
New Orleans#1,203on the 24-hour board of 2,002, at 32 US AQI (5.7 µg/m³)

The last year, day by day

Mecca
New Orleans
Each city's daily mean from 7 Oct 2025 to 6 Oct 2026, one stripe a day, coloured by band. A blank stripe is a day without a daily mean.

Month by month

Nov2025DecJan2026FebMarMecca, Apr 2026: 6.7 µg/m³New Orleans, Apr 2026: 7.2 µg/m³AprMecca, May 2026: 16.9 µg/m³New Orleans, May 2026: 7.2 µg/m³MayJunJulAugMecca, Sep 2026: 11.5 µg/m³New Orleans, Sep 2026: 7.0 µg/m³SepOct
Monthly means in µg/m³ over the days both cities were measured. Solid: Mecca. Faded: New Orleans. A month shows once both share 10 such days. Dashed line: the WHO daily guideline, 15 µg/m³.

Each city's worst days

Mecca

New Orleans

Daily means in US AQI, with µg/m³ beside them, since the index stops at its top value, over the days both cities were measured in the last year. Each date opens that day's world board.

Compare either city with another

Mecca

Side by side with Indio (the nearest), Hanford (United States's 2nd worst on 30 days), Gujranwala (the world's worst on 30 days).

New Orleans

Side by side with Chalmette (the nearest), Gujranwala (the world's worst on 30 days).

Use this page

SmogRank, PM2.5 daily means compared, Mecca and New Orleans, 7 Oct 2025 – 6 Oct 2026, smogrank.com/compare/us-mecca/us-new-orleans (accessed 7 Oct 2026).

You're welcome to reuse a single chart, image or figure with this citation and a link. Terms. Raw monitor readings in bulk are published by OpenAQ, under each provider's licence.

The same rules as every SmogRank figure: reference monitors first, and a day counts with 18 measured hours. How we measure.

Updated 2026-10-07 08:07 UTC. Values are PM2.5 (fine particles), the median of each city's monitors, as the US AQI PM2.5 sub-index.