Due to the exceptionally warm start of the year, people may develop hay fever complaints earlier than usual. Due to the relatively high temperatures, many trees are already in bloom, especially in Limburg
According to pollen expert Maurice Martens from website www.pollennieuws.nl Limburg is traditionally the province where hay fever complaints are most common. “That has to do with the location. Limburg is often the first to have relatively the highest temperatures. The flowering of plants is therefore always a bit earlier than elsewhere in the country.”
birch pollen
According to Wageningen University and the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC), birches will bloom in our country this week due to the sunny and warm spring weather. “The birch spreads highly allergenic pollen and can cause many complaints in people with an allergy to birch pollen,” according to the LUMC.
birch pollen
Because no significant rain is expected for the time being, the amount of pollen in the air is increasing. According to the scientists, some people can develop symptoms even with low amounts of birch pollen. “It is good for these people to know that birch pollen can appear unusually early in the air this year. We recommend that people with a birch pollen allergy start with medication in good time.”
The universities anticipate that the peak period of the birch pollen season this year will fall between the end of March and 18 April. During this period, the most birch pollen occurs in the air during dry weather.
Chestnut
Wageningen University has established that due to the high temperatures, trees such as chestnut, mountain ash and hawthorn are also developing leaves three to four weeks earlier than normal. March violet, celandine, wood anemone and the first Pentecost flowers are already in full bloom. That is certainly a month earlier than usual. Fifty years ago, trees such as horse chestnut and poplar didn’t get their first leaves until late April, early May. In 2020, nature was just a little earlier, according to the university.
Birch and Ash in bloom alongside other flowering trees. Maurice @FloraNetherlands wrote a new pollen journal, see https://t.co/s9QtUj7hJE #pollen† #hay fever† pic.twitter.com/PyIn5pJ4IJ
— Pollennieuws (@Pollennieuws) March 23, 2022
People who are only allergic to grass pollen will not have hay fever complaints for the time being. “The sun and heat will make the grass grow, but not yet bloom,” the researchers say. The peak of the grass pollen season is on average at the end of May and in June.