If you felt like you couldn’t breathe yesterday—you weren’t imagining things. Georgia hit its highest pollen count on record, and experts say it’s not a fluke.
🌼 What’s Happening: The pollen count in Georgia soared to 14,801 on Saturday. That’s not just high—it’s the highest the state has ever recorded. For context, anything above 1,500 is already considered “extremely high.”
🌳 What’s Causing It: A mix of earlier spring warm-ups, longer growing seasons and a lack of strong rain are giving trees more time and better conditions to dump pollen into the air. Pine, oak, cedar and birch are the biggest pollen producers right now. But because of longer stretches of mild temperatures, trees are blooming earlier and for longer periods of time.
🌬️ Why This Is Happening More Often: Scientists who track seasonal patterns say the region is seeing more frequent early springs, along with longer growing seasons and shorter winters. All of this is giving plants more time to release pollen and making the pollen season start earlier and last longer.
📉 Rainfall Matters: Dry, breezy weather has played a big role this week. Rain helps wash pollen out of the air. But with little rainfall and more wind, pollen lingers—and spreads faster. It builds up each day and sticks around without relief.
💡 Take Action:
If you’re feeling the effects:
- Stay indoors during peak pollen hours—usually mid-morning and early evening.
- Run your air conditioning and use clean filters.
- Shower and change clothes after time outside.
- Don’t dry clothes outside—pollen sticks to fabric.
- Talk to your doctor now if over-the-counter meds aren’t helping.
🔜 What’s Next: Forecasters say pollen levels will stay high through early April unless a strong rain system moves through. Even then, tree pollen will linger. Grass pollen picks up next—and the cycle continues.
B.T. Clark
B.T. Clark is an award-winning journalist and the Publisher of The Georgia Sun. He has 25 years of experience in journalism and served as Managing Editor of Neighbor Newspapers in metro Atlanta for 15 years and Digital Director at Times-Journal Inc. for 8 years. His work has appeared in several newspapers throughout the state including Neighbor Newspapers, The Cherokee Tribune and The Marietta Daily Journal. He is a Georgia native and a fifth-generation Georgian.
