It’s a bad spring for allergy sufferers. Climate change could make seasons like this happen more often

Tree pollen got an early start this year because of the lack of snow and warm temperatures.

“The [pollen] counts here also got a little bit higher than normal. So you’ve literally been inundated with pollen when you walk outside,” said Schauberger. “It’s hard to predict with how the grass pollen season is going to go. I would suspect just based off of what we’ve already seen that it’s going to probably, again, kind of start earlier than we typically see.”

This follows a trend over recent years.

Data from the USA National Phenology Network indicates that on average, the start of spring has occurred earlier in the contiguous United States since 1984.

One study found total pollen amounts increased up to 21% between 1990 and 2018 nationwide. The Midwest and Texas recorded the greatest increases.

With climate change, our springs are expected to start earlier which is more conducive for pollinating plants.