It's springtime in New York! (If you close your eyes and don't go outside.) Now that even the hardiest of of snow banks have met their demise, it's time to look forward to...allergy season.
The aggressive winter means that plants have been saving up all their pollen, to be dramatically released into our eyes and noses and throats as the temperature continues to heat up. As Dr. Leonard Bielory of Rutgers University’s Robert Wood Johnson Medical School told CBS New York, New Yorkers can look forward to output of such volume we'll perhaps even see "clouds of pollen being released over the next several weeks," creating "an almost yellow-green mist.”
Elm, cedar and maple trees are just beginning their assault, he said, with oak and birch to follow suit by the end of April. Then come the grasses, but by then it won't matter: Your eyes will already be swollen shut, your nose will have closed and no amount of tissues will dam the mucus flow.
Your best bet is to stay inside in the early morning and late afternoon, when pollen counts will be highest. Good luck out there.
