Itchy throat? Scratchy eyes? Lower Mainland’s allergy season ramps up

Just as B.C. welcomes the spring equinox Tuesday, the Lower Mainland’s allergy season is ramping up.

Experts explain tree pollen rates are very high thanks to the warm weather the region has had over the last few days.

Dr. Amin Kanani, a Vancouver specialist in allergy and clinical immunology, says the pollen count has “significantly” gone up.

“Tree pollen generally starts around this time, February, March, and will go all the way until about June,” he told CityNews Monday.

Kanani says the climate change crisis is playing a role in the strength of pollen every spring.

“Year to year, there’s a little bit of variability, but if you look at the trend over the past few decades, we are definitely seeing a much earlier start to the tree pollen season because of the milder weather,” he said.

He adds the Lower Mainland has a second upcoming pollen season — for grass — which runs from May to August.

“We have a pretty long pollen season here,” he said.

The extra pollen in the air comes after the region saw dozens of temperature records fall over the weekend.

In the Vancouver area, it hit 15.1 C on Sunday, breaking a more than a century-old record of 14.4 set in 1900, according to Environment and Climate Change Canada.

In Abbotsford, it got up to 21.5 C, narrowly beating an old record of 20.6 set in 1947.

It got as warm as 22.5 C in Pitt Meadows, which easily surpassed the old mark of 19.5 set in 2019. Meanwhile, Richmond saw a new record of 14.6, edging out a previous high of 14.4 set in 1900.

In total, more than 30 new highs were recorded across the province. In some cases, records were beaten by as much as five degrees Celsius or more.

With files from Maria Vinca and Sonia Aslam

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