Allergies in Tucson as bad as Sedona/Cottonwood? (Flagstaff, Oro Valley: house, neighborhood)

[adventuregurl]

Can anyone tell me if Tucson is bad for allergies? I've never had them before coming to the Sedona area and staying a number of years. They've gotten really bad and are not typical, severe sinus problems, leading to infections.

I'm wondering if they'd be as bad in Tucson.

[paradiseca]

Originally Posted by adventuregurl

Can anyone tell me if Tucson is bad for allergies? I've never had them before coming to the Sedona area and staying a number of years. They've gotten really bad and are not typical, severe sinus problems, leading to infections.

I'm wondering if they'd be as bad in Tucson.

Depends where you are at in Tucson IMO. Tucson along the washes has lots of trees including the invasive African Sumac and and a lot of mesquite and olive trees. The African Sumac blossoms in early February and I think is a major source of allergies. The olive trees aren't as numerous but are all over Tucson in yards and planting strips. Olive trees are the worst culprit. Look aroud Sedona and see if you see any olive trees or African Sumac.

Sedona has a lot of trees and outside of Tucson not so much. So Tucson outside the wash areas would be better..

If you get outside of Tucson to Vail, Green Valley, Oro Valley and into the desert areas west and east where you just have native vegetation I don't think you will have allergy problems except when its windy.

[adventuregurl]

Originally Posted by paradiseca

Depends where you are at in Tucson IMO. Tucson along the washes has lots of trees including the invasive African Sumac and and a lot of mesquite and olive trees. The African Sumac blossoms in early February and I think is a major source of allergies. The olive trees aren't as numerous but are all over Tucson in yards and planting strips. Olive trees are the worst culprit. Look aroud Sedona and see if you see any olive trees or African Sumac.

Sedona has a lot of trees and outside of Tucson not so much. So Tucson outside the wash areas would be better..

If you get outside of Tucson to Vail, Green Valley, Oro Valley and into the desert areas west and east where you just have native vegetation I don't think you will have allergy problems except when its windy.

Good to know, Oro Valley is a choice I like.

In Sedona it's juniper and pine that's the big problem.

[Jukesgrrl]

I have a pine allergy. Can't set foot in Flagstaff. In Tucson (I live in the suburbs, right between Oro Valley and Marana), I am highly allergic to the sumac tree paradiseca mentioned. Plus the cottonwood trees that are in bloom all over my neighborhood right now, then it's the palo verde trees, then some bush that blooms with pink flowers, olive trees, all the desert grasses people plant for color and height in their yards, the ragweed and buffel grass which are all over every wash, etc., etc. There are windy days when there's so much pollen at my house it drifts in piles on the sidewalk and I have to sweep it up with a broom and dustpan to deposit it in the garbage. This has been an especially bad year for me. I've had two sinus infections that have had me in a doctor's office multiple times each.

The only place I've ever lived where my allergies were this bad was Washington, DC.

Tucson urban and desert pollen calendars -test