Warm Winter Brings Early Spring Pest

Remember all those balmy winter days with no ice or snow. Looks like there is a price to be paid after all.

It's really very simple. Warm winter brings early spring. And spring brings pollen.

Anyone with a car has noticed the return of the yellow dust, which doesn't normally appear until early April.

The pollen count topped 8,000 Monday, breaking the record of 6,013 set April 12, 1999, according to Fox 5.

How are you coping with the record pollen? Tell us in the comment area below.

Until the area gets a good, soaking rain, there's no relief in sight.

, with additional pollen from grasses and weeds including sheep sorrel/dock, according to Dacula Patch.

“The seasons are getting longer, they're starting earlier, and pollens are getting released earlier," said allergist Stanley Fineman from the . He also said the warmer weather leads to more carbon dioxide in the air, and the carbon dioxide feeds plants and thus drives pollen production.

His clinic tracks the daily pollen count online for the Atlanta area.

Some experts warn that warmer winters may be the wave of the future.

“There have definitely been some data indicating that climate change is causing spring to advance and plants of all sorts to flower earlier in the season,” biologist Estelle Levetin, chairwoman of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology’s aerobiology committee, told the The Washington Post.

She said a recent study showed that the fall ragweed season is also getting longer in the Northern United States and in Canada, but it's not clear global warming is to blame.

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