Allergy season not only strong, doctors are expecting it to last longer

Up and down the Central Coast, it’s been a super bloom of allergies. This past winter rain has allowed the typical pollen generators (trees, grass, & weeds) to really bloom.

According to local allergist and immunologist, Dr. Whitney Rassbach, it’s the busiest season he’s seen in nearly ten years.

“We’ve had people coming through the doors, sort of knocking down the doors, to come in because of how bad their allergies have been,” said Rassbach. “And some of them haven’t experienced allergies before and suddenly they’re sick.”

Like Linda Miller of Carmel Valley, who is the only one in her family who doesn’t suffer from allergies, but this year that’s not case.

“I’ve been sneezing like crazy, my eyes have been watering a ton and I was wonder why that was,” said Miller.

Around the Central Coast, tree pollen is the major threat near the coast. Whereas in the valleys it’s more the grass and weeds. But this year, Rassbach said everything is in full swing and it’s all getting blown and mixed around.

“The early comers have been the trees and they’ve really been having a really prolonged growing season, they should’ve been done by now but they’re really going strong still,” added Rassbach. “The grasses have just started getting underway, so we can only expect that the other pollens are going to be really bad.”

And with how high pollen counts are now, experts expect this allergy season to last a month or so longer than normal.