Smokiest city? (climate, days, cities, meteorology)

[dxnerd86]

We in Sydney have had to put up with a bit of smoke over the past couple of days due to hazard reduction burns in the area, chiefly in the national parks on the fringes of the city. This is quite common in May as high pressure systems tend to sit and bring lengthy periods of calm weather, ideal for controlled burns.

Any city that sits in a basin is prone to smoke and other pollution whenever winds die down and inversions form. Aside from forest/wildfires, wood smoke pollution is also an issue particularly in cooler climates.

From my observations, I nominate Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia as the smokiest city. It sits in a high mountain valley and is the coldest capital city on the planet. A Google forecast often yields "smoke" in winter, no doubt causes by wood heaters. Indian cities also come up with "smoke" quite often, mainly Mumbai and Kolkata, though I tend to think this is more smog than smoke.

Smoke is actually a recognised meteorological condition which is why I'm putting this in here. Also the Australian Bureau of Meteorology issue air quality alerts for Sydney on a regular basis, in conjunction with the New South Wales Department of Health- not just for smoke but for other pollutants as well.

[koyaanisqatsi1]

It really annoys me when they insist on doing hazard burn-offs during westerly air-flows .
It was just awful seeing and smelling all that smoke drifting across the basin to the east. No wonder the rate of asthmatic attacks rises sharply under such conditions

This, simply, should be done under pure S-SE flows

[Rozenn]

From the countries I traveled to, I was especially surprised by the coal smell in Poland (southern Poland that is, I don't know if coal heating is as widespread in the rest of the country). So Wrocław, Katowice and Kraków seem like rather smoky cities for european standards, which isn't surprising given the amount of coal available nearby. I guess the smell can remind older western European tourists of their childhood, when coal burning was still big.
Anyway last time I went there, it was in winter after two weeks of calm weather and the air quality contrast with Germany was pretty big, even in the countryside.

[Ethereal]

What about Beijing and LA due to haze and smog?