If you’ve been wondering what happened to this spring’s high pollen counts, wonder no more, because they’re here.
After barely moving the needle on the misery meter during the entire month of March and first week of April, Atlanta’s spring pollen season soared into high gear this week, the count topping the 1,000-mark on Sunday for the first time this year.
The city’s pollen count, measured by the Atlanta Allergy & Asthma Clinic, went from a mere 5 particles per cubic meter of air on Friday and 54 particles on Saturday to 1,691 Sunday.
The big climb continued with Monday’s count of 2,093, and on Tuesday, the count climbed several hundred more points to 2,607.
The jump into the extremely high range came after a March that saw the pollen count peak at 356 on the 17th, with the count reaching triple digits on only three days.
Last March, Atlanta’s pollen count was in the thousands on 15 days, capped by the all-time record high of 9,367 on March 20, 2012.
The major contributors to Monday’s high count were oak, birch, sweetgum, pine, sycamore and willow pollens.
Channel 2 Action News meteorologist Karen Minton said the next pollen-cleansing rain will move into metro Atlanta late this week.
Minton said there’s an 70 percent chance of rain on Thursday.
Unfortunately, there’s a slight risk that Thursday’s rain will be accompanied by severe storms, forecasters said.
Temperatures will be warm this week, topping out in the low 80s degrees Tuesday and Wednesday. Afternoon highs will be in the mid-70s Thursday before falling back into the upper 60s Friday, Minton predicted.
Overnight lows will be in the low 60s, Minton said.
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