Clean air in Texas (Houston, Dallas: best cities, how much, house)

[augiedogie]

My wife has some pretty serious alergies. We'd like to find someplace in Texas with pretty clean air. One of the areas we're considering is Lake Jackson, hoping that the air would be pretty clean, coming off the gulf. Any help finding information on this topic would be helpful. WEst TExas is pretty bad for her, with all the dust storms etc. Dallas wasn't so good for allergies either when we lived there.

[love roses]

My allergies are never really bad there. I don't think any of my friends down there suffer from them, or not badly. I could get on facebook and ask them though.

[High_Plains_Retired]

It probably depends on what your wife is allergic to. I have always had bad allergies in just about every place I have lived, e.g., pineywoods of deep east Texas, southern Louisiana, eastern Maryland and central New Mexico. It is odd but the only place I have found that I have no allergies at all is on the dusty south High Plains of west Texas. Today was especially bad with most of my neighbor's plowed cotton field moving at 30 miles per hour, ten feet off the ground. I also think natural humidity seems to enhance any allergies I may tend to suffer but, as of late, the South Plains has had very little of that.

However, I must say that most folks are not as lucky as I when it comes to the dirt and cotton dust of the South Plains. I think I must be like an organism who inhabits a volcanic vent in the mid-oceanic regions. We are rare.

[shoe01]

These articles might be informative:

Best Cities for Allergies in U.S.
Worst Allergy Cities for Spring Allergies

The second link pretty much says that the quarter-mile near the ocean might be good, but that pollen thrives in high humidity. It also says that Miami is good for allergy sufferers because of the strong breezes off the Atlantic. So, if you can get a sturdy, elevated house w/ storm windows very close to the Gulf and you don't mind the summers, then that might be an option.

However, I think cedar pollen can blow in to that part of the state when strong fronts blow in from the northwest in winter.

[augiedogie]

I found an article on "Cleanest air in the USA". It confirmed my theory that all around clean air is best in general. Many northern cities on that list, as you have so many months with nothing growing. But interestingly, central Florida as also very good, and every time we go to Florida, her allergies clear up almost immediately and she feels fine. Probably because so much of the air comes off the water, either the gulf or the Atlantic. So we are now thinking Florida, but we also wondered if the gulf coast someplace would be good.

[tstone]

Something is usually blooming every month of the year on the coast, and there are lots of weeds/wildflowers, grasses and toadstools (mold) down here. Proceed with caution.

[CptnRn]

There are numerous air quality maps available on the internet here https://www.google.com/search?q=air+...w=1454&bih=767

This map for example indicates the air in that area is in the second worst category, with Houston and the area around it in the worst category. Texas Air Quality Map Bay City, not far West of Lake Jackson is in a moderate category, half way between best and worst.

That is not however an indication of what allergens are in the air. You can check the pollen count here Pollen Count for Lake Jackson, TX (77566) - weather.com Lake Jackson probably suffers from most of the usual Texas allergy problems such as mold, oak pollen, perhaps cedar (I'm not sure how much cedar there is in that area).


If you are close enough to the coast to experience the breeze off of the gulf, that may help keep the air cleaner. But some times of the year most of Texas gets significant amounts of smoke blown all the way across the gulf from Mexico agricultural fires, smoke that you can smell in the air it is so strong in addition to it making a distinct haze in the sky.

[goodtymes70]

allergies should be better in places like Lake Jackson or Victoria with high humidity and more rain, it won't be perfect, but anywhere in Texas your going to have bad allergies, I don't think the air quality would be good anywhere in Texas or the surrounding states, but Texas I think has some of the poorest air quality as a state in the nation.... I think Louisiana is the worst. There are lot's of refineries on the coast and just widespread air pollution. Big issue in Texas is the Wind blows allergens from far away, typically in high humidity and rainy climates the pollen should not be as much of a problem but no promises. Best wishes in finding the right place.