Allergy sufferers will get hit hard this spring

Photographer and storm chaser Jeremy Gilchrist captured aerial images of a pollen cloud hovering over Durham, North Carolina.

Last Wednesday I blogged about the oak trees and how their catkins are already swarming like moths to a flame across the area.

Get ready for yet another over-loaded pollen season. You may have seen this tweet yesterday from AccuWeather:

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You’ll notice Texas is in the ABOVE average color and that extends to Michigan and on to Maine. Why? Pretty simple really: we’ve had a warm winter. We haven’t been as wet as the eastern U.S. (notice they are expecting well-above pollination).

Warm winters simply mean longer growing seasons. You might recall the upside of that is farmers having more days to grow food.

This also means more days for flowers and trees to pollinate. The spring days ahead are forecast to be warmer than normal for much of the country:

So how long will the allergy season last for Southeast Texas? I’m forecasting into early May, much like last year. April showers do bring May flowers, and by then, we’ll stop most of the reproduction and have new fully-formed leaves and flowers.

Take note, with a warming world we will only have longer allergy seasons going forward. Climate Central makes this prediction:

That graph indicates a doubling of the pollen in the air from the year 2000 to 2060! And then there is the ragweed season which doesn’t even take hold until September.

Grab the tissues. You’re going to need them.

Happy weekend and Happy Rodeo!

Frank

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About the Author:

KPRC 2's chief meteorologist with four decades of experience forecasting Houston's weather.