Sydney's air pollution worse than Beijing's... for a day

Image: webcamsydney.com

Controlled forest burns send AQI levels rocketing in the Australian city

Sydney – it's beautiful, it's bougie, its skies are blue. The Australian metropolis is renowned for its year-round fine weather, that harbour vista and a generally enviable quality of life, which, by and large, remain blissfully untouched by the scourge of smog that we Beijingers know all too well.

But today, while we revel in glorious blue skies and breathable air at a delectable AQI rating of around 30, Sydney has been blanketed by a smog cloud that has pushed its levels just shy of 500 in some parts of the city, as the nation's Daily Telegraph reports.

After an ominous cloud rolled in over the last day or so, New South Wales health authorities issued warnings this morning advising vulnerable groups, and in some places, pretty much everyone, to reduce outdoor activity or just stay indoors while the city is stifled by the covering cloud.

Sydney's AQI ratings at their worst. Source: Peter Hannam (@p_hannam) via Twitter

Rather than the rich, exhaust fume- and industry-flavoured brands of smog we're so accustomed to, Sydney's thick haze and its nasty particles are the unfortunate by-product of around 70 controlled forest burns recently started by fire services across New South Wales to help reduce the risk of bushfires in the coming months – a regular threat in the region's dry climate.

Barring incidents such as this, such high levels of air pollution are extremely uncommon across Australia, whose major cities all clock yearly PM2.5 averages well below the WHO's level for concern (London, Berlin, Rome and Paris don't, just so you know) and overall air pollution rarely hits noteworthy figures. It should be said, however, that this is not the first time that Sydney has seen AQI warnings issued: January 2017 saw an alert put out for the excessive, hazardous levels of ozone in the air, as temperatures reached 38 degrees and the AQI-ometer headed towards the 150 mark.

This edition of Sydney smog is expected to subside by tomorrow, but if you Beijingers simply have to see the Opera House shrouded in the dusty stuff, you don't actually need to go anywhere – Beijing's got its very own scaled-down replica at the notorious World Park (pictured above). And isn't it just... underwhelming?

We're looking good right now, but the smog will return – click 'Read more' at the bottom of the page for just some of the best pollution masks available in Beijing.

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