Allergies, pollens and ragweed pollen in particular... (Sacramento: live, floor)

[Tiger Beer]

People in the Sacramento area, are your allergies any better or worse than other areas you lived?

How about the FALL, particularly with RAGWEED? Anyone incredibly miserable with RAGWEED in the FALL? I THINK it is much worse on the East Coast of the U.S., but wondering if Sacramento is a bit better...or more or less the same.

Sorry, tough question, I know...I've also looked allergy.com and other ragweed websites, but they only have 'today's data' as opposed to September/October in particular.

[mattinsac]

I don't know about Ragweed, but in general Sacramento is a bad place for allergies and for air pollution.

The central valley is one of Americas most productive agricultural regions, so you have lot of different pollen sources. The area is also part of a giant bowl. Pollution is blown in from the bay area by prevailing winds in addition to the locally generated stuff. In the summer a high pressure system tends show up along the pacific and when that occurs the air in the valley stagnates as the temperatures rise. The pollution can really be a problem in some of the foothill locations. In the winter time the area gets an inversion layer that brings tule fog to the region. Basically cold air night creates radiant fog along the valley. During the day the fog reflects the heat and that creates an inversion layer where its colder along the valley floor than in the foothills. During these periods, the pollution gets trapped by the inversion layer.

If you have problems with asthma, Sacramento is a bad choice.

[wburg]

Ragweed is common throughout the entire United States, other than places where plants pretty much don't grow, and that sure isn't Sacramento. If you are susceptible to allergies in general, something in the air in Sacramento will make you sneeze or sniffle.