Sneezing up a storm lately? Always seem to be congested? Well, this time you can indeed blame the weather!
The two big factors are temperatures and rainfall.
We have had extremely high average temperatures over the past few months. In fact, 2016 was among the top five warmest years on record across all of Central Florida. That means trees and plants that are normally pretty dormant during winter continue to be active. We haven’t even started one of our major pollens yet, which would be oak. That yellow haze on everything could come earlier with higher levels than usual.
Our rainfall has been sparse at best since Hurricane Matthew. The really active weather has been just to our north and along the Gulf Coast states.
Think of rainfall as the atmosphere taking a shower. The rain picks up the pollen while it falls and deposits it in the soil. Without the rain, the pollen just blows from place to place. One of those places being your nose and sinuses.
Keep the allergy pills stocked up and be sure to use them even before symptoms appear if you know a pollen you are allergic to is about to spike. Good luck and don’t forget that we update you with our pollen forecast at :21 after the hour, 24 hours a day!