SPOKANE, Wash. – As we get into allergy season, fellow sufferers might think it’s basically the end of the world.
You’re entitled to your opinion, but the silver lining here is that many people across the United States actually have it much, much worse.
In fact, Spokane isn’t even in the top 90 cities in the U.S. for allergies. On a recent ranking, we came in 91 out of 100 cities.
The Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America based the rankings off of three factors: the city’s spring pollen score, allergy medication use and the number of allergy specialists per patients.
The average pollen count score for cities across the U.S. is 56. Here in Spokane, it’s just 39. Weather plays a large role in high pollen levels. Warm, dry and windy weather climates with little rain have the highest pollen levels.
According to Pollen.com, Spokane’s allergy forecast for Tuesday was medium-high, which depends on the pollen count in the air. Some days are better than others, but on average, Spokane doesn’t have it very bad. Even today, the Midwest and Northeast all had it worse than we did.
The worst cities for allergies are McAllen, Tex.; Louisville, Ky.; and Jackson, Miss.
The Pacific Northwest as a whole ranks really well on the list. Seattle is ranked 94, Portland is 97 and Boise is 99 out of 100.
Early spring is when we tend to see the most tree pollen, according to Dr. Steven Kernerman from the Spokane Allergy and Asthma Clinic, when we talked to him last year. Towards the end of May, we’ll start to see the grass pollen uptick, then the weed pollen season will pick up later this summer, July through August.