BUFFALO, NY -- Normally we go to the lake in the warm season for relief from the heat - but right now it's a good place to go for relief from allergies, which are having somewhat of a moment this year.
That's because we are getting two pollen seasons in one, so-to-speak.
"Spring is usually tree pollen - that's late late April and early May. Then from early May through July 4 is when grass pollen is present," said Dr. Andrew Green, an Allergist with the Buffalo Medical Group in Orchard Park.
Green says the tree and grass pollen seasons are overlapping because spring started late with our cold April, and then summer started early with the warmest May on record in Buffalo in nearly 150 years.
"April was such a cooler, heavy rain month, and then we had May, so the tree pollen didn't come out as early and then when it started to come out it came out at the same time as grass pollen was coming out so you had a convergence of tree and grass pollen at the same time," Dr. Green said. "Recent pollen counts - there are two official pollen count areas in WNY, one is in Rochester and one is in Olean - the most recent one in Rochester showed there was both tree pollen significance and grass pollen at the same time."
The allergy forecast for the rest of this week into the weekend shows medium to high levels expected.
And the higher pollen levels should last through July 4th.