BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) — As the Earth transitions from winter to spring, people may find themselves grabbing for the tissues, as the most common allergies this time of year include grass and tree pollen.
With the excessive rainfall this year, people are worrying. Are allergies going to get worse?
“Trees start pollinating in the springtime," said Dr. Salima Thobani, an immunology physician at Kaiser Permanente. "Summertime is the grass traditionally and then weed pollen in the fall.”
Typically a wet winter can mean a more prominent spring bloom, but the case may be slightly different for Bakersfield. According to Brandon Pratt, a professor of biology at California State University Bakersfield (CSUB).
“The thing about Bakersfield though is we're in a two-fold," says Pratt. "We’re in a desert and we’re in a Mediterranean-type climate and what a Mediterranean-type climate tells us is that we have cool moist winters, hot dry summers. So while the ground is wet now as it is raining in the winter, the ground is going to get dry.”
That dry ground may not heal immediately from the heavy rainfall.
“There’s a couple of reasons that lead me to think it’s not gonna be a heavy grass year. One is just [that] I go out and walk a lot and spend time in these landscapes and I'm seeing that we don’t have a lot of grass. I attribute that largely to the fact that we’ve had a series of drought years.”
Despite the numerous atmospheric rivers this winter, Pratt believes that next year may be the year to look out for.
“These grasses are annual plants, which means they have to come up from seed every year," explained Pratt. "They're not just there and they can respond rapidly. What that means is the seeds that these grasses have produced over the last drought years have been diminished because they haven’t had very good populations. So this year for the grass is gonna be a rebound year. They’re not doing great but with all this water, they may start to recover. So actually, I would predict for people that suffer from grass allergens [that] maybe next year would be worse than this year as the grass population rebound.”
Despite Pratt's prediction, health officials still want those affected by allergies to prepare.
“You want to make sure [that] shoes don't come into the house, especially not into the bedrooms," recommends Dr. Thobani. "You want to be able to go change your clothes, at the very least, so that everything caked to your clothing is off. So if you can immediately wash your face, nose, eyes, and hands, you're are in a good place.”
Physicians also recommend staying up to date on the pollen counts. For those that know their allergies start every springtime, start the nasal sprays two weeks in advance.
