Pollen storm

[ElizabethB]

The live oaks are mostly through shedding their leave. They are loaded with seed pods. I have a live oak in my yard and in the yards on all three sides of me. Yesterday there was a nice, light farmer's rain. Today the sun is out and the March winds are blowing. Each gust of wind stirs up the oak pollen. It looks like clouds of dust. I went out to the patio for my morning coffee and thought I was going to die. For the next few days I will not be able to work outside without a paper mask. Looking at my tree the rain yesterday and the wind today has gotten most of the pollen pods out of the tree. My neighbor's tree on the left side is still loaded with pollen. Now I have to clean the patio, carport and driveway. Thankfully this does not last long.

[valley]

Greetings. We soon will have the same going on here in the mountains, except with the Fir trees. The yellow pollen goes everywhere and gets into everything. It seems the trees know when the winds will start and dump their pollen.

It use to bother me, I went to the doctor he said it was pollen. What? I asked. I've never been to Pollen. I may come back on and delete this.

[ElizabethB]

[digitS']

Maybe I'm allergic to pine trees. The pines will seem to gather themselves during a pleasant spring day and then a gentle zephyr will hit the branches and poof! It is about then that allergies begin to get the best of me . . .

By early July, I can be a wreck and begin a desperate retreat indoors every afternoon. I have found that it is best just to take the generic zyrtec every morning right thru the growing season. I hate to do it but I will be vanquished from the playing field without it!

The Allergy and Asthma Foundation issues a "Worst Cities" list for allergies every spring and fall. Unfortunately, they are making you wait for the spring list until April and just have the fall list on their website. Here is their "Worst Cities" for asthma however: Asthma Capitals (link)

I am not sure about locations as they relate to individuals. I live out of high humidity which can be so difficult for people with asthma but the dryness here takes its toll on my sinuses. When I lived in the fresh, fresh air of the Pacific coast, the wind and cold seemed to set me up for chronic bronchitis! Of course, smoking cigarettes during those years was probably the worst thing I could do.

Steve

[applestar]

Yeah, I got the "high pollen" alert this morning on my weather channel app. Trees. But spring allergies are usually not as bad for me as July and August. I'm highly allergic to ragweed and their kin, so any chrysanthemum-like blossoms. But I still plant sunflowers, though so far I have avoided the asters.

[gumbo2176]

The area of town I live in has huge oaks lining many of the major streets and heavily dispersed in the neighborhood side streets. For the past couple weeks I've needed to hose off my wife's car and my truck every time we go to use them. The yellow pollen gets everywhere.

There's some nice breezes blowing for a few weeks now but opening the house for a few hours simply means a few hours of dusting up pollen.

My sinuses hate me this time of year.

[valley]

digitS, We have pine here as well as fir. Some years ago it really got me, my eyes and nose were running away, then somehow it got less and now nothing. Hope it doesn't get you down. Best luck.

Richard

[Gillybby]

Oh gosh.
When they were planning Canberra, someone decided planting Cottonwoods along a bunch of city roads was a fantastic idea. There's a time of year dubbed as "The fluff is falling". I get amazing hayfever, it's never a good time of year.

Strangely enough, Autumn has just started and my hayfever has kicked in out of nowhere.

Related.

[Charlie MV]

I don't have a smart phone so I guess I don't have a pollen app. I do however have a black truck, a dark car and a white car. The darker vehicles are pretty good pollen apps.

We have a new screen porch that we built this winter. Screen keeps bugs out but does absolutely nothing to slow down the pollen. Everything inside the screen porch is coated in yellow dust. At least we can hose off the deck outside. Next year we may have to glass in the porch but I notice that even on the light and dark cars there is a film of yellow dust so glassing the porch will just make even more work.

What is everyone's record for continuous unprovoked sneezing. I'm pretty sure that mine is 14 in a row. I'm not sure though because after about number 11, I get dizzy and my counting gets fuzzy.

[ElizabethB]

Charlie lost count