ATLANTA — A majority of February brought well above-average temperatures across north Georgia and with the warmth we had, some trees have started to sprout early.
The early leaves and flowers appearing in trees means allergy season is off to a booming start with the earliest "extremely high" count of pollen on record, according to Atlanta Allergy and Asthma.
The previous record of our earliest "extremely high" count was March 16, 2012 and records have been kept for more than 30 years.
The count of 1,605 for Monday exceeds the base for an extremely high range, which starts at 1,500.
According to the Atlanta Allergy and Asthma website, Pine, Oak, Sweet Gum, Hackberry and Birch were the main contributors of tree pollen that led to the extremely high count. Mold was also at an extremely high count for Monday with grass and weeds coming in at a low count.
Atlanta Allergy and Asthma also stated last month broke a record number of February days in the high range of pollen counts with 14, breaking the previous record of 10 from 2017.
Our pollen counts took a bit of a tumble on Friday thanks to some rainfall, but the drier and warmer conditions over the weekend helped the pollen counts soar.
Rain chances make a return late this week, which will hopefully knock more pollen out of the air. The rain chances also come with a cold front that is expected to drop temperatures for the weekend and into early next week.
Despite the early arrival of warmth by mother nature, be sure not to plant your garden.
It is likely Atlanta has not yet experienced the last freeze of the season.