A blanket of pollen has descended on the Triangle over the past 2 weeks — coating everything it’s touched in yellow powder + leaving us sneezing.
If you’ve started to notice that each year’s pollen amount seems to be getting worse than what you remember as a kid, you’re not crazy.
According to a study done this year in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, climate change is making pollen seasons longer and heavier. Pollen seasons are now 10 days longer than they were in 1990, and trees are producing 21% more pollen.
However, the good news is that according to Zaynab Nasif, a spokeswoman for the NC Dept of Environmental Quality, the highest pollen counts are usually recorded between the last week of March and the second week of April — aka the air should be clearing up soon.
In the meantime, watch out for pollen counts being the highest between 5 a.m.–10 a.m. and peaking around mid-day, as Dr. Saira Sheikh of the UNC Division of Rheumatology, Allergy & Immunology told the News & Observer.
Check out this Twitter account + this website for daily pollen updates. Click here for a list of NC curated pollen tips.