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Montreal’s air quality in 2023 worst in eight years due to historic forest fires
MONTREAL — The air in Montreal last year was the most polluted it has been since 2015, thanks to Quebec’s historic forest fire season.
The city’s annual air quality report, published this week, shows fine particle pollution spiked in 2023 to its highest level in eight years.
Air quality in Montreal improved between 2014 and 2016, partly because many coal-fired thermal power stations closed in the United States.
The city experienced its worst smog days ever recorded on June 25-26 last year because of heavy smoke from the forest fires that by the end the season burned more than 4.3 million hectares in the province, the most on record.