It’s time for The Pollening in North Carolina, which coats the state — and probably your car — in yellow each year. And if you live in the Triangle, you might just get the worst of it.
This year, Raleigh placed seventh on the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America’s (AAFA) list of the most challenging U.S. metro areas to live in with allergies. AAFA Research Director Hannah Jaffee would know — she grew up in the area.
“It is just wild, how everything is just covered in this thick blanket of chartreuse, and it sticks to everything,” she said.
Jaffee said AAFA looks at three factors: tree grass and weed pollen scores, the availability of allergy specialists in the area, and over-the-counter allergy medicine use. For the 2026 report, Raleigh ranked worse than average for all three categories.
The southeastern United States tends to rank higher because of its warmer temperatures and humid climates, Jaffee said. The prominence of pine trees in Raleigh is what makes allergies particularly bad in the area.
This is what a lot of folks usually see during The Pollening, she said, because pines produce larger tree pollen than other types of trees.
The City of Oaks is also home to the only state-run pollen collector, operated by the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality’s (DEQ) Division of Air Quality (DAQ).
While the sampler does not forecast future pollen levels, it does collect historic pollen data, which is available to the public dating back to 1999, according to Public Information Officer Shawn Taylor.
This process involves trapping pollen grains using a fast-rotating collection rod before staining them and examining the sample in a laboratory. This process starts around February and runs through the fall, Taylor said in a statement.
“Pollen activity can vary depending on species, weather and geography, making it difficult to define a start or end to ‘pollen season,’” he said. “What is most prevalent at any time is due to the pollination cycle for particular species of plants, and even within species, the times vary.”
Tree pollen peaks in the spring, grass pollen peaks in the summer, and ragweed pollen peaks in the fall. Depending on what you’re allergic to, Jaffee said, there’s a chance you might be experiencing allergy symptoms year-round.
Research shows that across the country, pollen seasons are starting earlier, lasting longer, and getting more intense. While a lot of people develop allergies in childhood, Jaffee said her team is hearing more that people are developing allergies as adults.
As someone who was diagnosed with allergies as an adult, Jaffee said she learned “the hard way” to begin taking allergy medicine at least two weeks before the season kicks off in the spring.
With pollen seasons running longer and overlapping with cold and flu seasons, AAFA has also created a chart to help people keep an eye on their symptoms, available here.
