Ship-track-like polluted cloud tracks provide a direct way to study aerosol-cloud interactions. Here, we study environmental conditions favorable for pollution tracks' formation. We study polluted cloud tracks forming downwind of localized anthropogenic air pollution hot spots of Norilsk and Cherepovets in Russia and Thompson in Canada. Polluted cloud tracks form on 20%–37% of days with liquid-phase clouds. The large-scale atmospheric circulation largely determines the occurrence of track-favoring conditions. Tracks tend to form in clean and thin clouds under stable and dry conditions that are more often associated with anticyclonic large-scale flow in the studied locations.