Uncertain what caused the pollution: "We are working on it"

Residents in Sør-Varanger and Vadsø reported a thick haze on Saturday morning, and local sources suggested it may have drifted in from Russia. The cause of the pollution had not been confirmed at the time of publication.

AI Comment from GPT 5:

A dense haze settled over parts of Sør-Varanger and Vadsø, including the Kirkenes industrial area, with sources speculating a cross-border origin but authorities still investigating the cause. The observation’s timing fits a broader regional pattern of transported smoke: extensive Siberian wildfires have recently degraded air quality across Finland as smoke moved westward (Siberian wildfires worsen air quality across Finland), while Yamal has been battling numerous active fires and mobilizing reinforcements from Irkutsk amid prolonged dry weather and thunderstorms (Firefighting efforts on Yamal will be reinforced by rescuers from Irkutsk). Nearby Yamal cities have also reported smoke odors and measured a suite of combustion-related pollutants, though without exceedances at the time of testing (Air quality checked in Yamal cities amid forest fires). Similar long-range smoke transport has been documented elsewhere this summer, such as Iceland’s whitish-yellow haze linked by a meteorologist to Canadian wildfire smoke based on back-trajectory analyses and elevated PM2.5 (Meteorologist: Haze likely caused by Canadian wildfire smoke), illustrating how distant fires can intermittently discolor skies and reduce visibility even far from the sources.