Hay fever sufferers are being warned that pollen levels will be high on Easter Sunday. According to the Met Office, levels of tree pollen, which currently includes ash, oak, plane and birch, will be at a high level across the North West region today.
People who suffer with hay fever may get a runny or blocked nose, itchy eyes and sneeze a lot while the pollen count is high because of their allergy to pollen grains. Pollen levels will drop down to moderate on Monday and Tuesday, but are expected to be high again on Wednesday next week.
Marco Petagna, a spokesperson for the Met Office, warned of high levels of pollen on Easter Sunday for those with hay fever.
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The pollen count is at its highest between late March and September but different types of pollen peak at different times of the year. It is thought climate change may be leading to an extension of the grass and tree pollen season, with it starting earlier.
Tree pollen, which is usually around between the end of March and middle of May, affects around 25 per cent of people.Most hay fever sufferers are allergic to grass pollen, which is usually around from mid-May until July.
The Met Office publishes a pollen forecast, which can provide hay fever sufferers with an early warning for when the pollen count is highest. The pollen count monitoring network combines Met Office weather data with expertise from organisations such as the National Pollen and Aerobiological Unit to produce pollen forecasts for five days across the whole of the UK.
Mr Petagna also said UV levels are moderate with the “sun as strong now as during August”, and suggested Easter Sunday and Monday may be the last of the dry bright weather for the week.
“Tuesday and Wednesday could see a few showers, particularly across the south of the UK,” he said. “And then the second half of the week is when we get an easterly wind developing, more in the way of cloud pushing in from the east with some patchy rain but still a lot of relatively dry weather too.
“The trend is certainly for temperatures to take a bit of a dip so we’re sort of back down to low locally mid-single figures by Thursday.”
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