GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — It's not just in your head, allergy season has been getting longer and more intense than it has been in previous decades. The key culprit, our warming climate.
As temperatures have warmed since the 1970s, another factor has increased as a result. That variable being the growing days per season. As the number of days between the last spring freeze and the first fall freeze goes up, the number of days plants produce pollen goes up as well.
In West Michigan that can take the form of trees producing pollen sooner and weeds producing pollen much later into the year.
Another climate change factor that plays directly into our worsening allergy season is CO₂ levels. As these levels increase data shows that pollen levels, especially for grass, are on the rise as well.
The graph below shows a notable increase in pollen during just that past 20 years. If we continue on our current path those levels are projected to continue rising through the rest of the century. If we take an aggressive policy toward cutting CO₂ emissions, we can curtail this trend and even start to bring them down by the 2080s.
This data is yet another reminder that climate change is not an abstract problem for our future, but one we are dealing with in the here and now. The more we can do now to help mitigate the impacts the less drastic steps we will need to take in our future.
-- Meteorologist Michael Behrens
Follow me on social media! Facebook Meteorologist Michael Behrens, Twitter @MikeBehrensWX, and Instagram @MikeBehrensWX.
Email me at: MBehrens@13OnYourSide.com
Have a 30-second video or still photo to share? We'd love to share it with everyone! Email your image to Weather@13OnYourSide.com or post it to our 13OnYourSide Facebook Page.
►Make it easy to keep up to date with more stories like this. Download the 13 ON YOUR SIDE app now.
Have a news tip? Email news@13onyourside.com, visit our Facebook page or Twitter. Subscribe to our YouTube channel.