Tuesday 6 October: the pollen level in Birmingham is low (CAMS model forecast). The most common pollen in the air is grass: 0 grains/m³ as a daily mean. The UK pollen season is essentially over; the next one starts with hazel and alder in January to March. Wednesday: low. Thursday: low. Friday: low.
Hay fever in Birmingham
Birmingham, in the middle of England, gets grass pollen from every direction: the farmland of Worcestershire and Warwickshire to the south and the Staffordshire pastures to the north. Its large parks, Sutton Park and the Lickey Hills add birch and oak pollen in April and May. Because the city sits on a plateau about 150 metres above sea level, spring is a little cooler than in London and the tree pollen season often starts a few days later.
Air quality in Birmingham
CAMS forecasts a daily mean of 3.7 µg/m³ of PM2.5 today, below the WHO 24-hour guideline of 15 µg/m³. Air pollution can make hay fever and asthma symptoms worse. Official forecast: Defra UK-AIR.
When plants release pollen
Pollen calendar and where the data comes from
A typical UK year: hazel and alder from January to March, birch from late March to mid-May (the main tree allergen, about one in four hay fever sufferers react to it), grass from mid-May to July, usually in two peaks (early to mid-June and early July), and weeds such as nettle, dock and mugwort from June to September. Scotland runs about two weeks behind the south of England. CAMS does not model hazel, nettle or plane tree.
CAMS (a European ensemble of models, median) computes every hour how much alder, birch, grass, mugwort, ragweed and olive pollen is in the air over Europe, on a grid of about 10 km, four days ahead. On the map, particles start where the model puts pollen in the air today and drift on the ECMWF wind. UK pollen calendar
Official sources
- Met Office: pollen forecast
- NHS: hay fever
- Defra UK-AIR: air pollution forecast
- Copernicus CAMS: air quality and pollen forecast charts
