‘ATLANTA IS YELLOW:’ Allergy sufferers wheeze at highest-ever pollen count

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Atlanta allergy sufferers, you have our deepest sympathies.

Over the weekend, the Atlanta area set a record for its highest pollen count ever.

Atlanta Allergy & Asthma, which tracks the daily pollen count for the city — and on Saturday, the total pollen count was 14,801. For reference, the pollen count on the same date the previous year was only 1,646.

Sunday’s count was 11,159.

The previous record was set in 2012, and while that pollen count of 9,369 is nothing to sneeze at, it doesn’t come close to the weekend’s record-shattering numbers.

Columnist Phil Holloway took to X to write, “Atlanta is yellow. All yellow. Everywhere. The highest pollen count ever recorded in all of time.”

He added: “I can taste the pine pollen in my mouth.”

Another X user Ivetta Abramyan shared a photo of a vehicle covered in the yellow stuff with “Send Zyrtec,” a plea for allergy medication, written on the pollen-coated hood.

The daily pollen count represents the number of pollen grains in a cubic metre of air, according to Atlanta Allergy & Asthma, which noted that tree pollen — notably oak, pine, sycamore, sweet gum and birch — was the biggest contributor to the weekend’s numbers.

Rain on Sunday helped rid the area of some of the pollen.

“While we’re not looking forward to damaging winds, I think everyone is on edge waiting for some heavier rain to wash away the yellow stuff,” Weather.com meteorologist Briana Waxman said.

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Monday’s pollen count in Atlanta was at 6,024, though the “peak” of pollen season is expected to continue for another couple of weeks, WXIA reported.

Atlanta sees, on average, about a dozen “extremely high” pollen days every year — all of those brutal days falling in the spring.