( NEXSTAR ) – , If you’re suffering from allergies right now, we’ve got some bad news for you. You might be residing in a town where allergy time is getting worse and longer.
That’s because as the weather has warmed, there are fewer time with hard cools. That gives flower manufacturers, grasses and weeds a , longer period of time to thrive , ( and make your eyes liquid ). The 2024 time has kicked off particularly first,  , authorities say.
It’s not just that allergy time is growing longer – , there’s even evidence it’s getting more powerful.  , One study  , looked at the impact of increased carbon dioxide on ragweed plants. Pollen flowers grew bigger and produced considerably more pollen as a result of the study’s findings.
Climate Central, an institution of scientists and editors that studies the impacts of climate change,  , analyzed data from almost 200 U. S. cities , to identify where the allergy issues are growing worse. They found that since 1970, the allergy year has grown more in 164 places.
One Texas area in special has experienced a dramatic increase in allergy season. El Paso placed ninth, marking a city with an increase in allergy season of approximately 47 days.
Although some other Texas towns performed slightly better, their allergy seasons are still advancing. Dallas, Fort Worth, and Sherman each have added about 17 more weeks. Tyler was n’t far behind with 15 days, while Odessa finished with 11. In their respective allergic conditions, Wichita Falls and Amarillo finished with 10 and 8 more days than they did in 1970.
Las Cruces came in second on the list with an additional 65 days of allergy season, but towns in the neighboring New Mexico did n’t do well either. Albuquerque/Santa Fe finished 13th in the country with 37 more times.
In the cities analyzed throughout the nation, allergy period lengthened on average by 19 times.
The following towns have had the longest allergy time since 1970:
- Reno, Nevada: 95 times longer
- Las Cruces, New Mexico: 65 weeks longer
- Medford, Oregon: 61 times longer
- Boise, Idaho: 51 times longer
- Tupelo, Mississippi: 50 times longer
- Missoula, Montana: 48 times longer
- Myrtle Beach, South Carolina: 48 weeks longer
- El Paso, Texas: 47 times longer
- Toledo, Ohio: 45 times more
- Eugene, Oregon: 40 weeks longer
- Helena, Montana: 40 weeks longer
- Concord, New Hampshire: 39 weeks longer
- Albuquerque/Santa Fe, New Mexico: 37 weeks longer
- Roanoke, Virginia: 37 times longer
- Manchester, New Hampshire: 35 times longer
- Duluth, Minnesota: 34 weeks longer
- Atlanta, Georgia: 33 weeks longer
- Lansing, Michigan: 33 weeks longer
- Minneapolis/St. Paul: 33 weeks longer
- Madison, Wisconsin: 32 weeks longer
While 164 U. S. places were found to have their allergic conditions growing more, about 30 places saw the same trend: shorter allergy times since 1970. In Ottumwa, Iowa, where the allergy season is roughly 19 times shorter than it once was, Chief among them.
According to Climate Central meteorologist Lauren Casey, there is n’t one single plausible explanation for why that might be the case. While global warming is happening nationally, the effect at the regional level is n’t often obvious- cut and predictable.
” I think of global warming as a big umbrella. Our global average temperatures are rising as a result of carbon pollution, but the result of that is climate change. And that does n’t always necessarily just mean warming in a given location. It has all sorts of different and cascading effects”, Casey said.
With their season behind being shortened by 18 days, both Lubbock and Waco saw a significant change.
Several other cities in the south stood out as well with Tulsa, Oklahoma, Macon, Georgia, and Mobile, Alabama, all seeing their allergy seasons cut down, according to the analysis.
Because some cities never experience temperatures below zero or only occasionally do so, Casey said, it may be harder to determine how long allergy seasons last in the South and Southeast.
Another recent report, released by the , Asthma and , Allergy , Foundation of America, focused on where allergy sufferers have it worst overall. They discovered that the South and Midwest cities are typically the ones with the worst allergy conditions. Wichita, Kansas, topped the list, followed by Virginia Beach, Virginia, and Greenville, South Carolina.
