Why am I sneezing?
If you’re new to the greater Houston area or a multi-year Texan resident, the kickoff of spring in March and April is usually marked by most of our cars and trucks turning a similar shade of lime green.
The spring pollen season is in full gear this week as the main culprits are our beautiful trees of SE Texas, in particular the explosion of oak, sycamore, and hackberry trees over the past few weeks.
You can check out the local pollen count for the Houston area by clicking on the City of Houston website that is updated daily here: https://www.houstonhealth.org/services/pollen-mold
When will relief arrive?
Thankfully, we’re expecting a cold front to push into the region by Friday that will bring showers and thunderstorms through the weekend. While that will chase many of us inside, we’ll at least be able to wash off some of the pollen on our cars!
Although, one thing to note is that a commonly known misperception about pollen particulates is that rain will “wash them away”. The short answer is that yes, it does wash some of the pollen off of the ground or your car. However, rain droplets don’t wash away pollen particulates because of their size, it will usually just break them up into smaller yet still sneezy particles. Check out the graphic below to get the idea: