The pollen count has been really high lately, mainly due to trees. You know what would help with that, some rain. Work with me here, I’m trying to provide a silver lining to an otherwise cloudy, wet finish to our weekend.
But seriously, the pollen count has been high recently. And I don’t just mean in recent days, I mean in recent decades. Prior studies have shown that ragweed now produces a lot more pollen than it used to due to increasing levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere. Plants like carbon dioxide. Not to mention, the warmer weather has extended the growing season and therefore lengthened the allergy season. A more recent study shows the same is true with grass pollen, especially so in the northern cities. In fact, if you double the amount of CO2 you get roughly double the amount of pollen. Scientists believe this holds true with most plants, but big trees are a little harder to grow and experiment with in a lab than ragweed and grass. So expect roughly double the amount of pollen in the air later in this century. Climate Central has more info on this and links to the actual studies.
As I mentioned in last week’s blog, even though it *seems* like its been a wet spring, we actually haven’t received much measurable liquid precipitation. In fact, even with the rain we got earlier this week, we are now almost 2" below average for meteorological spring (since March 1). So, the "good news" is that we are getting some rain. The "bad news" is that it’s coming on a weekend.
The first half of the weekend looks pretty decent. Partly to mostly sunny skies on Saturday with highs in the low 60s (near average) inland, but mid 50s near the coast. Clouds take over Saturday night. The first half of Sunday looks cloudy, but dry. Project Bread’s Walk for Hunger kicks off with a 5k run at 7 am on the Boston Common. No problem there. Then there is a 10 mile walk with a rolling start through the rest of the morning. Those that don’t start the 10 mile walk until closer to 11 am might not be able to finish before the rain moves in. Expect rain in the Boston area in the early afternoon. The rain becomes widespread later in the day and the Sox game Sunday evening may be impacted. The chance for rain continues into Monday.
But hey, that rain will temporarily wash some of that pollen out of the air and put a dent in the current rainfall deficit. Every cloud has a silver lining.
