Sneezin’ Season: Something in the air, all too soon
May ambushed February, now allergy sufferers poised to pay for it.
The annual reproductive frenzy among the region's tree life evidently is off to a torrid start.
Tree-pollen counts on Thursday were "very high," according to the Asthma Center's Dr. Donald Dvorin, the region's official monitor for the National Allergy Bureau.
Blame the extraordinarily mild winter, says Dvorin. As we reported, this was the first February in records dating to 1874 in Philadelphia that the temperature reached 70 or better on four different days.
It also was the warmest February on record, with an average temperature of 44.2, 2 degrees better than the former No. 1, 1925.
The meteorological winter as a whole – the December through February period -- came in at No. 6 all-time.
Dvorin kicked off his daily counting Wednesday morning, finding that Junipers were dominating, with some Maple and Elm pollen also making attempts to contribute to the next generation.
Although no one yet has come up with a reliable pollen-forecasting method, Dvorin said if the general warmth continued, the region's tree-pollen season might have a familiar feeling.
Last year's was quite intense after a winter that actually was warmer than this one.
Philly.com will begin reporting the daily counts starting with Monday's.
On workdays before he sees patients in his office at Broad and Race Streets, Dvorin empties a pollen trap on the roof of his building.
The pollen grains are sucked into a coin-slot-size slit inside the trap, which looks like a small satellite with a large fan blade attached.
The pollen becomes attached to a microscope slide coated with an adhesive, and Dvorin infers the daily count from what he sees under the lens.
The county represents how many grains have passed through a refrigerator-size parcel in the previous 24 hours.