Spring is synonymous with way too much pollen in the District. Every year, the whole region gets blanketed in yellow spores in the springtime. Seriously.
This District Geek has serious allergies that have only gotten worse since moving here. As such, I thought it would be fitting to explain exactly why I suffer so much in this city, as compared to my hometown of Buffalo, or places like the Southwest US: DC sucks with tree pollens.
Oak pollen has grainy spores, which can float for miles, as well as these “catkin” tentacles which fall on my head.
To visualize how pollen is measured, the
National Allergy Bureau lists pollen counts on
a scale from Absent to Very High, based on the amount of pollen spores per cubic meter of air. On this chart, a “moderate” tree pollen count is 15-89 grams, high is 90-1499, and “very high” means more than 1,500 grains per cubic meter. So far this year, there have been two “very high” spikes in pollen counts in the District. The first was during a spat of 70-degree days in February. The second was during last week’s warm, dry weather [via
pollen.aaaai.org]. I know firsthand that Oak and Pine blasted us last week, as outside District Geek central there are massive Oaks which dusted my parking area from afar, and to the south a line of pines rained pollen down on the unfortunate cars that parked under their shade.
You do not want to sniff this.
And although more spring rains has been forecast for this week, which knocks pollen out of the air and washes it off cars and sidewalks,
Thursday is meant to be very high once more. Let’s hope that because of the rain, we won’t have astronomical pollen counts. Plus, we are nearing the end of the major tree pollination time for this year, so hopefully the end is nigh.
Until then, keep taking your drugs!
Just food for thought.
Feel free to post your own tales of pollen misery and/or arguments about climate change (I know it’s always a cause of controversy…)!
