Here comes the sneeze season: Tree pollen already 'high' in the Triangle

A warm, windy Wednesday triggered an early-season surge in tree pollen across the Triangle.

The culprit? The trees.

According to Wednesday morning’s pollen report, four types of tree pollen are already circulating, with the official count climbing to just over 150 grains per cubic meter.

"We have a lot of trees in our neighborhood so you could see it drifting across the road when you were driving," Susie Adamsky, a Raleigh resident, told WRAL News. "It was so much."

With even warmer days ahead, those numbers are expected to rise.

“The pollen season isn’t necessarily going to be worse in terms of record-breaking numbers, but this does mean it’s probably going to be a longer pollen season in the area," Campbell said. 

This ranks as the sixth-highest pollen report on record up to this point in the season, according to the Southeast Regional Climate Center, which maintains a local pollen dashboard.

For perspective, we are still far below the February record of more than 1,000 grains per cubic meter set in 2017.

Typically, pollen season in our area begins ramping up in March, with peak levels arriving during the first week of April.

If you're sensitive to pollen, it may make sense to subscribe to the daily pollen report from the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality.

The notorious yellow pine pollen usually blankets the region for about three weeks.

If you suffer from seasonal allergies, now is a good time to restock medications and prepare before the peak of sniffle season arrives.