You might be smirking and saying to yourself that central Florida doesn’t have a Fall. If I weren’t an allergist and self-declared Lorax, I would agree with you. But fortunately for us, I am. 

We don’t have a change of leaf colors, but we do have a change of pollen. It’s mid-September and a delightful patina of weed and grass pollen is on your patio. Not to mention, it’s the rainy season and the mold spore count is up. 

Most of the time I have a general idea of what allergens are outside based on my patients’ symptoms plus knowledge of our allergy seasons. Central Florida has two tree pollen seasons: the biggest is Spring from mid-January to about mid-April, and the milder tree season is around October. Weed pollen season is in the Fall around August to November. And for you lucky folks with grass pollen allergy, our grass season is about 10 months of the year from March to December, and peaks in the Summer.  

But every once in a while for fun, I check the pollen counts at our National Allergy Bureau site at the University of South Florida Allergy Division in Tampa. https://pollen.aaaai.org/#/station/0115f165-d63b-4cbb-9a57-d03e972f3b89

The young allergy doctors there are tasked with emptying out the pollen collector device from the rooftop. Then they count the allergens one by one……by one. It’s a labor of love, and my favorite pollen is a grass pollen that looks like the Star Wars Death Star. https://twitter.com/allergykidsdoc/status/860101840859484160?lang=en    

Another handy website is pollen.com  https://www.pollen.com/forecast/historic/pollen/34239 

I was surprised to learn that there isn’t a real person counting pollen. This is more like a pollen weather forecast. They use previous years of pollen data and computer models of the weather to predict the pollen counts. 

So, my allergy friends in central Florida, I hope you have a happy Fall Y’all! 

With love,  Dr. Ly