JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 Allergies in Northeast Florida are expected to be worse than usual this fall following summer drought conditions and a lack of tropical storms.<\/p>\n
Health officials warn that dry weather has created optimal conditions for weed pollen to surge across Jacksonville.<\/p>\n
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/a><\/p>\n A lack of summer rain killed off area grass, allowing weeds to grow in its place throughout the region. Without regular precipitation or tropical weather systems to clear the air, pollen counts have elevated sharply.<\/p>\n Dr. Sunil Joshi, an allergist and Chief Health Officer for the City of Jacksonville, explained that summer dry spells directly impacted turf grass while allowing weeds to take over. <\/p>\n SEE: Action News Jax First Alert Allergy Tracker<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cWhen it\u2019s not raining, our grass dies,\u201d Joshi said. \u201cAnd what replaces the grass? A lot of times it\u2019s the weeds that are replacing the grass.\u201d<\/p>\n Joshi warned that the absence of seasonal rainfall has allowed pollen levels to spike across Jacksonville. <\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/a>]<\/p>\n \u201cThis fall, you should expect that the allergies will be worse,\u201d Joshi said. \u201cThis time of the year, since we haven\u2019t had the rain that we typically expect, we also have had relatively dry conditions here recently, weed pollen is much, much worse.\u201d<\/p>\n Data from Pollen.com<\/a> shows that ragweed and chenopods are currently the top allergens in Jacksonville. Ragweed typically pollinates around the same time each year, making early preventative measures essential for individuals sensitive to the plant.<\/p>\n [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/a>] <\/p>\n To manage symptoms before they start, Joshi advises residents to utilize preventative health measures both at home and on the road. \u201cThere are things you can do with over-the-counter medications,\u201d Joshi said. \u201cYou can also keep your windows closed inside your house, keep the AC running, keep the windows up in your car.\u201d<\/p>\n According to Pollen.com, ragweed and chenopods are currently the top allergens in Jacksonville.<\/p>\n Click here<\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here<\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here<\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/p>\n Action News Jax Top Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 Allergies in Northeast Florida are expected to be worse than usual this fall following summer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":418210,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[344,59173,347,520,28,348,116,351,118,117,349,350,164987,1851,346,345],"class_list":["post-418209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-action-news-jax","tag-allergies","tag-cbs47","tag-fall","tag-florida","tag-fox30","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-fl","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-northeast-florida","tag-southeast-georgia","tag-summer-drought","tag-tropical-storms","tag-wfox","tag-wjax"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=418209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/418209\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/418210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=418209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=418209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=418209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}