Forecast

Rain dampens the pollen count, ragweed is a burden when the sun shines!

The heavy rainfall has washed all the ragweed pollen out of the air and as a result the allergic load of pollen from this neophyte will remain low until the beginning of the weekend.

With the onset of warm and precipitation-free weather conditions, however, the exposure to ragweed pollen will increase again, whereby the irritation threshold can hardly be reached in the urban settlement areas of Carinthia. The level of allergic exposure in the last days of September depends heavily on the local conditions. In the vicinity of ragweed stands, allergologically relevant pollen release can still occur, especially in the early morning hours.

Larger populations of ragweed plants occur mainly along the A11 motorway between Villach and the Karawanken tunnel and along the motorway from Klagenfurt to Wolfsberg. In some areas of southern and eastern Carinthia, ragweed can also occur along the road network and in the vicinity of arable land. The northern parts of Carinthia are largely free of this neophyte.

All other pollen types that are important for allergy sufferers, such as plantain, grass and mugwort pollen, only occur in small quantities.

High levels of fungal spores are also typical of late summer.

Dr Helmut Zwander