Fall pollens that cause sniffles and sneezes

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Many people love the arrival of the autumn season, for it marks the time of the year when days start to get cooler as more cold fronts pass. But it's also the time when some allergy sufferers might be thinking of bypassing fall and going straight to winter.

Here are some of the fall allergens that cause problems.

Perhaps the most dominant fall allergen is ragweed. Ragweed is one of those plants with a high amount of pollen. Just one ragweed plant can release over one billion grains of pollen into the air. Just knowing this could bring a huge case of the sneezes.

Once these pollens get airborne, they can travel for miles. This affects not only humans but also some pets.

The primary time for ragweed is late summer into the current fall season. Our KXAN pollen monitor started tracking ragweed counts in late August. Given that ragweed does well in warmer temperatures ,it looks like this season will stick around through at least mid-November and beyond.

Ragweed symptoms, like most allergens, result in persistent sneezing, a runny or stuffy nose, nasal congestion, itchy, watery eyes, a scratchy throat, and coughing due to postnasal drip.

There are a few other weed pollens that can create hay fever issues for some people. Fall is when we have light amounts of pigweed and marsh elder. Marsh elder is in the sunflower family. It grows in ditches and waste places. It's also known as being toxic to livestock 

Molds are a year-long problem. Most think that molds are totally dependent on wet weather, but that's not correct. Molds thrive in just about all types of weather, from cool and damp to hot and dry. They also love windy conditions.

Fall landscapes can also foster mold growth. The falling leaves and the wood decay lead to higher mold counts. This leads to a recommendation from allergists to clean up those fall leaves and yard debris to stop mold from thriving.

It's just not the outside where we find mold. It's also in your home, often found in basements, bathrooms, and kitchens. Here, you want to make sure you repair water leaks immediately. Use the exhaust fans, if you have them, and a dehumidifier to remove moisture in your home.

Like asthma, mold's symptoms include severe wheezing, coughing, and shortness of breath.

Grass is also a seasonal problem for some. Certain warm-season grasses can make allergy sufferers miserable during the fall season. Our warmer climate allows the grass to still pollinate into this fall season, thus extending allergy symptoms.

Grass types that foster pollen releases are Annual rye, Bermuda, Johnson, and Timothy. They may be pretty to look at, but they also do a number on grass-pollen allergy sufferers. Part of the reason for this is that the warmer weather that we have here means a delay in that first moderate frost.

It's not a light freeze that kills the grass pollen, but a moderate or hard freeze. When the temperature falls to 28° or lower, the grass will die, thus ending its production and release of its pollen.

There is one tree pollen that has some people sneezing and wheezing. Most of our tree pollens release pollen during the spring. But there is one outlier. It's cedar elm, also known as fall elm.

This elm tree blooms and releases its allergic pollens from late summer into the fall. Like all pollens, it is carried by the wind to increase the exposure for those who might be allergic to it. Allergists point to this pollen being at its worst in September and October, so it does not appear to have that long of a lifecycle.

Finally, though known as a winter allergen, it is highly likely that sometime in mid- to late November, we will see the first signs of the mountain cedar. Low amounts of this dreaded pollen are still enough to give some those symptoms of cedar fever. The peak of the cedar season starts in mid-January and lasts until February. But the counts have lasted into March.

Cold fronts, seen more in fall and winter, leave dry, windy conditions that ruffle the cedar trees and pollen releases from the male cones.

Now's a good time to visit your allergist to be prepared.