Warmer weather means a longer allergy season

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Sure, we’ve been waiting for months, but the warmer weather in the forecast this week could be a mixed blessing.

It’s hard to stop and smell those early spring flowers when your nose is running, your eyes are itching, and you’re sneezing your head off. Allergy season is stretching on longer than usual.

The mild winter and early spring — thanks, in large part, to our friend El Nino — have meant pollen from alder trees came weeks early this year.

“Alder is one of the main allergens for Vancouver,” explains Frances Coates with Aerobiology Research Laboratories, which monitors pollen and spore levels across the country.

“The season was early, so it’s going to be finishing earlier than some years,” she notes.

If you’re suffering from allergies, that may sound good. But birch pollen is also a major allergen and that did not start early, which means it’s just about to kick into high gear, essentially dragging bad allergy season out even longer than usual.

“Some poor people who have allergies to both are going to start suffering from alder [and] are also going to start suffering from birch,” says Coates, adding if you suffer from hayfever, mother nature hasn’t forgotten you.

“Grass season is starting,” she warns.

Maybe stock up on antihistimines and tissues.

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