Forecast

It’s set to remain hot, though thunderstorms may bring some relief in some areas!

The heat of the past few days is set to continue, but a drop in temperatures is expected from the middle of the week onwards. Until then, it will remain hot across the whole country. In the mountain ranges of western Austria, thunderstorms may occur during the day as early as Monday. These are also expected in the rest of the country by Wednesday. Depending on the intensity of the rainfall, allergy sufferers can expect varying degrees of relief.

Should the thunderstorms be accompanied by increased lightning activity, there may, contrary to expectations, be a rise in pollen levels. In this phenomenon, known as thunderstorm asthma, pollen grains burst open, releasing vast quantities of free allergens into the air.

Those mainly affected are people who are sensitised to grass pollen. Although mowing has already taken place in many parts of the country, moderate to high levels of grass pollen in the ambient air are still to be expected.

The current grass pollen levels are now primarily from species found mainly along streams and rivers or in woodland. Consequently, it is likely that levels in urban areas may fall to a moderate level, whilst they will remain high in rural areas.

In meadow areas, additional exposure from sorrel, goosefoot plants and plantain is to be expected.

The flowering of sweet chestnut trees is drawing to a close, but may still cause low levels of exposure in the immediate vicinity for people who are sensitised to beech or birch pollen, potentially triggering cross-reactions.

In addition, people who are sensitised to olive tree pollen should also expect low levels of local exposure to privet pollen in the air.

In locations with particularly favourable climatic conditions, the first flowering mugwort plants have already been spotted. This marks the start of the herb pollen season locally. However, it will still be a few weeks before the plants are in full bloom across the board. Locally, however, minor allergic symptoms may already occur.

Meanwhile, fungal spores are now consistently reaching moderate to high concentrations in the ambient air. 

In addition to the pollen types already mentioned, the pollen spectrum currently also includes pollen from bee balm, nettle family plants, umbellifers, rhododendrons, acid grasses, papilionaceous plants, spirea shrubs, grapevines and cypresses are currently present in the pollen spectrum. However, these pose only a very low allergenic risk.