Fall Allergy Season May Be Longest, Strongest this Year

Posted 9/9/11 11:16 a.m.

NEW YORK (WLS) – With record pollen counts already on the board for August, this fall is gearing up to be one of the worst, and longest, allergy seasons yet, according to experts.

Thanks to a particularly wet summer, ragweed pollen levels are surging and standing water left over from summer flooding and Hurricane Irene has increased the amount of mold, a common year-round allergen, in the air.

“We’re going to have an allergy double whammy,” says Dr. Clifford Bassett, medical director of Allergy and Asthma Care of New York.

To top it all off, the allergy season is expected to last a few weeks longer than usual this year, according to research published earlier this year in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Fall Allergy Season May Be Longest, Strongest this Year