The worst of spring allergies are over — Here's what's ahead
AUSTIN (KXAN) — Spring is the most active season for pollen in Central Texas. The month of April in particular is one of the most intense months of the year for allergy sufferers — in terms of allergen variety.
The main culprit: trees. Oak is the main tree allergen that many people are often bothered by.
Luckily after oak peaked with a "very high" count of 1,291 g/m3 on April 22, it has drastically declined. We started off the month of May with oak in the "medium" category but it has recently continued to fall. In fact, tree allergens as a whole have been decreasing dramatically and have remained in the 'low' category. It is safe to say the worst of the season is behind us.
Here's what to expect ahead
While grass pollen usually lasts from March through October, the highest counts typically occur in May and June. While grass has generally been fairly tame for the month of May so far, we are expecting a spike in the count heading toward the end of the month and into June.
Looking ahead, we expect grass and mold to be the primary allergens during June with grass being the highest and trees being the lowest. Trees will more than likely stop being detected in the air by the middle of June.
Mold will be highly dependent on how much rain we see. With the end of May and the beginning half of June being one of our wettest time periods during the year, you can expect intermittent spikes of mold between the 'high' and 'medium' category with a general downward trend as we get into drier and hotter weather by the end of June.
Where to track Central Texas allergies
Find the latest allergen counts for Central Texas, as measured by PollenSense, an automated pollen sampling machine that gives KXAN updated counts every minute, instead of once a day. It uses artificial intelligence to identify different allergens.
KXAN is the only TV station in Texas to use this technology. Whether it is cedar, mold, cottonwood, oak, ragweed, ash, pine, mulberry, elm, poplar, or any other allergen in our area, you can track all of the recent allergy reports.