RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — It's the sneeziest time of the year. Is that a word? Well, if not, now it is. After this recent stretch of nice, warm weather and some good rain over the past several days, we're about to see tree pollen take off across central NC.
A little bit of rain coming Thursday will knock the pollen levels down for a day, but we'll likely see the highest pollen counts thus far this year by this weekend.
Usually, tree pollen peaks in central NC in late March and early April, right around the time of the final spring freeze. We haven't had a freeze at RDU in over two weeks (March 3rd), and that's not likely to change over the next week or so.
However, there are some trends that this early spring-like weather will be pulling back some by the end of March and to the start of April. The long-range temperature outlook puts us back near average to wrap up March, and there are some indications in the model data that we could see another freeze around the time we flip the calendar to April.
This would make sense, in the grand scheme of things. The average final freeze in the Triangle is in the first week of April, but in each of the last three years, the last freeze has come in either March or February.
