NEWS ARTICLE

Top online tools to combat hayfever misery

Published on Thursday, July 19, 2012

The changeable summer weather this season has given us long periods of rain mingled with short bursts of sunny and dry days. This weather, whilst not very enjoyable, has been perfect for grasses, weeds and other plants. It has allowed them to build up massive pollen stores, which are then released in the occasional bouts of warmer weather.  This in turn has meant that more people are suffering from hayfever than usual and those who already have hayfever are getting more severe symptoms than normal. 

To help you to survive this seemingly endless hayfever season, we’ve put together a list of top online tools to help you combat hayfever: 

1) The Met Office forecast - On the Met Office website there is a five day interactive weather map which can show you the pollen forecast for your local area. This enables you to see how likely it is for you to have hayfever symptoms over the next few days and therefore to take steps to prevent those symptoms.

2) Our pollen calendar - Our pollen calendar is a great tool which shows you which plants, trees, crops, grasses and weeds are in season throughout the year. It shows you the duration of their pollen releasing season and the times when this is most potent. This will help you to be prepared for your most allergy prone times, according to which plants affect you the most.

3) The Kleenex Hayfever Hub on Facebook - This Facebook page from Kleenex combines a pollen counter, hayfever tips and a quick game to distract you from your symptoms!

4) The Love Summer Hate Hayfever Facebook page - This Facebook page is for people suffering from Hayfever. It contains regular Pollen Forecasts from the Met Office, tips for dealing with your hayfever symptoms and the Daily Distraction, a post that will stop you from thinking about your hayfever pain! It’s a great place to have a moan about how annoying hayfever is and you’ll find like minded people there who will sympathise with your misery! 

5) The Benadryl Social Pollen Count - This is an interactive app which combines official Met Office data, social activity and live pollen alerts from hayfever sufferers to show you exactly how pollen is behaving in your area. You can see where hayfever alerts have been given by people like you, agree or disagree with them and even see what people have said about hayfever  in your area on Twitter!