If you have watery or itchy eyes, headaches, a reduced sense of smell, or disrupted sleep and tiredness – it could be you are suffering from hay fever.
Prof Jonathan West, a plant pathologist and aerobiologist from Rothamsted Research institute, told the the types of pollen in the air at the moment are from various trees – mainly Alder, Hazel and Cypress and also Yew and Elm.
“Recently, we have had a lot of pollen in the air because we had a long period of relatively cool, wet weather, which slowed down the development of flowers on those early flowering tree. This has been followed by some nice sunny and warm weather, suddenly advancing the flowering of certain trees so they released large amounts of pollen.”
Rising temperatures caused by climate change mean that the pollen season is extending. The latest ‘State of The Climate Report, external‘ published by the Met Office in 2025 revealed the flowering of hazel was almost 10 days earlier now than in the past.
The pollen forecast will be available on the Weather app from Thursday 19 March.
