SmogRank / Mecca / Santa Cruz
Mecca vs Santa Cruz: PM2.5 compared
Over the last year, Mecca's air was about 1.8× as polluted as Santa Cruz's: PM2.5 averaged 11.4 µg/m³ against 6.3, on the 78 days both cities were measured. Mecca had the dirtier air on 52 of those days, Santa Cruz on 24. Mecca was over the WHO's daily guideline of 15 µg/m³ on 23 of them, Santa Cruz on 0.
Right now
The last year, day by day
Month by month
Each city's worst days
Mecca
- 21 May 202614854.6 µg/m³
- 18 May 20269733.8 µg/m³
- 15 May 20268828.9 µg/m³
Santa Cruz
- 20 May 20265812.6 µg/m³
- 19 May 20265511.3 µg/m³
- 15 May 20265410.7 µg/m³
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).
Santa Cruz
Side by side with Live Oak (the nearest), Gujranwala (the world's worst on 30 days).
Use this page
SmogRank, PM2.5 daily means compared, Mecca and Santa Cruz, 7 Oct 2025 – 6 Oct 2026, smogrank.com/compare/us-mecca/us-santa-cruz (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.