Pollen counts are abnormally high
Numbers expected to rise through Friday at least
Abnormally high pollen counts are making Topeka allergy sufferers sniffle, sneeze and generally feel miserable.
One website predicts the problem in coming days will only get worse.
Another suggests pollen counts will stay roughly the same all this week, then ease up a bit next week.
Pollen.com says ‘allergy index’ here is bad, and getting worse
More than 67 million Americans suffer from allergy symptoms, including hay fever, said the website pollen.com.
That site is maintained by IQVIA, a Durham, North Carolina-based pharmaceutical company that manufactures a tool used to measure pollen counts.
Pollen.com offers a function that enables users to go online to learn the allergy forecast for the city where they live.
That site said Sunday marked the fifth day in a row that Topeka had an “allergy index” in the “high” range, which is between 9.7 and 12.
Sunday’s Topeka allergy index was 9.8, down from 11 on Saturday, the site said.
Indices were expected to then be 10.1 on Monday, 10.5 on Tuesday, 11.1 on Wednesday, 11.4 on Thursday and 11.3 on Friday, the last day for which a prediction was available, said pollen.com.
Tree pollen and grass pollen the ‘worst offenders’ here
The weather.com website maintained by The Weather Channel said allergy risks for Topeka ranked halfway between “moderate” and “very high” Sunday and were expected to remain that way from Monday through April 16.
That rating is expected to then drop to “moderate” on April 17, that site said.
It said tree pollen and grass pollen are among the “worst offenders” in terms of causing allergy symptoms in the Topeka area.
Kansas is home to the nation’s allergy capital
Kansas is among the nation’s states currently suffering the worst allergy problems, said a graphic posted last week on the website of USA Today.
The Sunflower State is also home to the allergy capital of the U.S., says the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America.
It awarded that dubious distinction for 2023 and then for 2024 to Wichita, which had placed second for 2022 behind Scranton, Pennsylvania.
The AAFA picks its top 20 after looking at daily pollen counts, availability of allergy specialists and overthe-counter medication use for populations. Kansas City, Missouri, ranked 20th for 2024, it said. No cities in Kansas other than Wichita made this year’s or last year’s lists because none were considered.
In creating the list, the AAFA said, it only studied data from the 100 most-populated metropolitan areas in the U.S.
Other air quality concerns in Kansas include prairie fires
A large, out-of-control prairie fire filled the sky with smoke this past weekend in Pottawatomie and Riley counties west of Topeka, burning thousands of acres while forcing the evacuations of some residents.
The blaze also sparked air quality concerns at a time when prairie fires late last month made the air less healthy in much of eastern Kansas.
Still, the Environmental Protection Agency reported Monday morning that air quality was good in all of Kansas except a portion of the state near its southeast corner.
Contact Tim Hrenchir at threnchir@gannett.com or 785-213-5934.