Love in the air, Ah-choo
If you have tree-pollen allergies, you know this already.
The first truly warm day of the spring is no doubt a welcome respite from what has been a cruel stretch of damp and chilly weather.
Unfortunately, several hundred thousand people in the region may be paying a price for the one-day warmth stand.
Conditions today should be near perfect for pollen flight -- warm, dry and windy.
The trees, which are just warming to their annual reproductive frenzy, have been waiting for a day like this.
Every year, starting in March and picking up steam in April, they send out their pollen to sow the seeds for their successors.
Last week, the counts were relatively modest. This afternoon, they're likely to be off the charts.
Last year, overall tree-pollen counts were low. But during that April heat spell, the counts rocketed to extreme levels. We saw something similar during warm spells in late March and early April in 2003.
For allergy-sufferers, the good news is the bad news for most everyone else: More rain is due tonight and tomorrow, and nothing does a better job of killing the tree mood.