Plant pollination occurs every spring, summer, and fall. The pollen grains released by trees, grasses, and weeds cause illness and suffering in over 40 million Americans. Pollen forecasts measure the amount and types of pollen present in the air, providing allergy sufferers the knowledge of when to avoid being outside.

Learn more about pollen forecasts in this article.

This weekend I started feeling really bad. Sniffles, sneezes, headache, and in general very blah. Kind of like I use to feel before my allergy medications or how I feel right before I get sick. Hubby asked me if I’d remembered to take my medicine that morning or if I’d missed any that week. I should have been all indignant, except that I do sometimes forget and then bad things happen. At any rate, I had taken my meds on time all week so we knew that wasn’t the problem. Of course he had to toss out the Swine Flu possibility (he’s a funny one) or a more plausible cold, but I didn’t have a fever. Then he asked what the pollen count was. The what?!

That’s right, I didn’t know about pollen counts. How in the world is this possible for a girl who has lived with allergies her entire life? I know, I know. What can I say? I can be completely oblivious. I had never thought about pollen counts before. I mean I knew I got more symptomy sometimes but I just figured…well I don’t know what I figured but it wasn’t anything rational like pollen count rates. I mean really, when you feel as bad as I feel with an allergy flare up the last thing you want to do is look at data. Geesh.

Being a good little learner I asked him what that was and how to find it. He told me it was a ranking of how much pollen was in the air and that it could be found at a weather website. So off he went to look and sure enough the pollen count was high. It said something to the effect of expect to suffer because the pollen is thick enough to see. No, not really, but that was how I read it. Apparently the pollen count was very high. Mystery solved. What lesson should you take away from this kids? Always check the pollen count, of course!

Do you use the pollen count to anticipate your symptoms? How well does it work??

Photo Credit Care SMC

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