AUSTIN, Texas — It's that time of year again. The peak of cedar season has many Central Texans sneezing, sniffling and rubbing their eyes.
Experts say the weather leading up to cedar season can impact what allergy sufferers may have to deal with. KVUE Chief Meteorologist Hunter Williams spoke to Karl Flocke with the Texas A&M Forest Service to find out how drought conditions and rain can affect cedar allergies.
Hunter Williams: You know, we're coming off an incredibly hot summer. It was one of the hottest on record for Austin, expanding drought conditions through much of the summer. November, we actually had quite a bit of rain – that could also be a factor. How has some of the specific weather that we've seen this year played a role in our allergy season?
Karl Flocke: "Well, what we've seen so far this year is the allergy season, the cedar fever season, actually kicked off a little bit later this year than we've seen in years past. Typically, we start to see the junipers releasing pollen about the middle of December. But we didn't really see a large uptick until right about the new year. So, a few weeks behind normal.
And really, through the month of December, we weren't seeing much pollen formation on the trees. I got to say, that's turning around. I'm really seeing that pollen out there on the trees, ready to be released. It's getting released right now.
Whether or not that was due to this summer, it's hard to say. But that would be the common denominator, likely, on why it's a little bit delayed this year compared to years past."