New York Times:

Spring can feel like the end of the world for allergy sufferers, but in North Carolina this week, it looked that way, too. And it has a name to match: “Pollenpocalypse.”

Massive clouds of sneeze-inducing pollen overtook North Carolina this week, tinting the skies yellow and covering cars, streets and ponds in a fine powder that left footprints on the carpets of unsuspecting residents and made allergy sufferers want to hibernate in a panic room until summer.

Pine tree pollen erupts across the state each spring, but Jeremy Gilchrist, a photographer in Durham, N.C., said he had never before seen the thick yellow-green haze that filled the air on Monday. “It was very weird,” he said.

A former meteorologist, Mr. Gilchrist captured photos of the cloud’s immense scope with a drone. On Facebook, he called it #Pollmageddon.

While the end-times jokes are social media gold, the freaky natural wonders are drawing attention to what meteorologists say will be a brutal allergy season, and could be an indication of things to come.

Climate change is contributing to longer and more severe allergy seasons, according to a recent study published in Lancet Planetary Health, which found that pollen loads and durations have been increasing on three continents over the past two decades as average temperatures have risen.

This year, high pollen counts are sweeping much of the country, from New England through the South and across to California. Tulsa, Okla., ranks No. 1 in pollen severity this week, according to The Weather Channel, followed by towns in Texas, New Jersey and North Carolina. In New York City, pollen counts are forecast to be in the higher ranges for the next five days.

Forecasters predict the worst is yet to come: Rain and snow during the fall and winter kept the ground moist, an ideal environment for trees — and a perfect storm of misery for the estimated 20 percent of Americans allergic to pollen.



