Forecast

The birch blossom is slowly coming to an end!

For people with an allergy to birch pollen there is good news: The mass dusting of birch has come to an end. Only in very shady valley locations and in areas over a thousand metres above sea level are there still a few "stragglers" releasing pollen. These small amounts of pollen hardly reach the large settlement areas and can only be responsible for allergic complaints locally.

A speciality in the flora of Carinthia are the populations of the hop hornbeam in the southern areas of our province. In the vicinity of these hop hornbeam stands, allergic symptoms can still be triggered by hop hornbeam pollen as a result of a cross-reaction in people who are sensitised to birch pollen.

Allergic cross-reactions can also be triggered in birch pollen allergy sufferers by the pollen of the copper beech hornbeam hornbeam and the oaks possible. However, the dusting of these three widespread tree species is already showing a downward trend.

The dusting of the ash has also ended. However, people allergic to ash pollen should bear in mind that in our southern neighbouring countries, Slovenia, Friuli and Istria, the blossoming of the olive tree will begin in the next few weeks. Olive tree pollen can trigger severe allergic symptoms in people with an allergy to ash pollen.

Other tree pollen with a very low allergological significance comes from maple and the walnut.

This year is another so-called "mast year" for spruce - this means that spruce, which is widespread in Carinthia, releases extremely high amounts of pollen. The spruce pollen grains can produce striking yellow streaks on water surfaces, which are also known as "sulphur rain". Spruce pollen grains cannot cause real allergies, but the extremely high amounts of pollen can lead to mechanical irritation of the conjunctiva and respiratory tract.

Pollen from grasses is becoming increasingly important for allergy sufferers grasses. Grass pollen is the most important pollen allergen in Austria. In the forecast period, there will be no mass dusting of grasses, but the allergic irritation threshold may already be exceeded in the vicinity of meadows, especially in the morning hours.

If the rainfall forecast from the middle of next week materialises, this will trigger a noticeable reduction in allergic symptoms for allergy sufferers.

Dr Zwander Helmut