Pollen Index

Pollens in the air affect many people who have allergies to them. They can cause a runny nose, red itchy eyes and other symptoms. There are a number of medications, both prescription and over-the-counter, that can minimize or even eliminate these allergy symptoms. There are a variety of types of pollen in the air, including ragweed, grass, tree pollen and mold spores. Different people are affected in different ways by each. Some people may be very allergic to ragweed but may not be affected at all by grass pollen. Others may be very susceptible to tree pollen, but may not be bothered by ragweed.

AccuWeather receives measurements of local pollen count from allergists, private physicians, government agencies and other sources, and combines all of these measurements into a local Pollen Index for each city. The higher the index, the higher the levels of pollen. Proprietary AccuWeather algorithms consider how weather will impact the amount of pollen in the air to also provide a forecast of the index.

AccuWeather provides separate indices for ragweed, grass and tree pollen, which are all available on AccuWeather.com, and the levels of these and other types of pollen are combined to create the overall Pollen Index. The overall pollen product also shows which of the pollen types has the highest level.