CLEVELAND, Ohio — It’s spring in Northeast Ohio: tree are blooming and allergy sufferers are sneezing.
Tree allergy season is here. Pollen from trees like oaks, maples, birches, poplars and cottonwoods is circulating now, and will continue for the next two to three weeks.
Pollen counts in Cleveland started to kick up within the last week, said Accuweather Senior Meteorologist Tom Kines. The pollen levels were high Tuesday, and will likely be high on Wednesday, too, he said.
That’s not unusual for this time of year.
As temperatures start to warm, trees and flowers start to bud and pollen counts climb.
Because warmups happens at a different point each spring, it’s tough to say if pollen counts this year are higher than usual. But at a certain point each April, when temperatures start to rise, pollen counts become high.
“It’s running very high right now as it typically does this time of year,” Kines said. “You start getting these warm spells and all the flowers and everything starts to bloom and green up. We typically get days where the pollen levels are really high, and that’s where they’ve been.”
Rain plays a role in pollen counts: It cleanses the air of pollen in the short term, relieving allergy symptoms. But it encourages growth of vegetation, which translates to more blooms, and more pollen.
Cleveland is below average for precipitation in April, even though the city has seen a lot of rainy days this month. The city has received about 2.4 inches of precipitation. Normal for the month is about 3.5 inches.
“We’ve kind of been nickel and diming it. So far, even though it’s rained on a lot of days, it hasn’t added up to a whole lot,” Kines said. For allergy sufferers, windy, warm days are the worst, because they stir up the pollen. Cleveland, though, is the exception in part to this rule, because when a breeze comes off the lake, it’s less likely to be carrying a lot of pollen, than, say, a breeze from the south.
Cleveland Clinic allergist Dr. Ronald Purcell said he started to see more patients come in complaining of tree pollen allergies over the last two and a half weeks. This allergy season so far has been pretty normal.
“It’s on par,” Purcell said. “This is a pretty typical allergy season.”
To decrease allergy symptoms:
• Take over-the-counter allergy medications. If allergies are affecting your everyday life, even with over-the-counter medication, it’s time to go see an allergist.
• Close the windows and use air conditioning both at home and in the car, if possible.
• Take a shower or change clothes after being outdoors to wash off pollen. Try a saline rinse to get rid of pollen inside the nose and sinuses.
• Clean contact lenses frequently to avoid irritating the eyes.
Next up on the allergy calendar? Grass pollen, which starts in June and continues through the summer.