In May the Met Office warned that the wet weather we had seen in April was promoting strong grass growth and that this could lead to high grass pollen counts later in the year.

Over recent days, observed pollen counts from the Met Office managed pollen monitoring network, have been very high on dry days at a number of stations, especially across parts of central and southern England. As we move into the weekend pollen counts are expected to remain at moderate to high levels in many areas, depending on the local weather, with further very high counts where the weather is dry.

The graph below shows the difference between this years and last years pollen count:

Patrick Sachon, Health Manager at the Met Office said: “In May we warned that the wet weather could lead to a high grass pollen count during the summer. As expected we have seen some very high pollen counts when the weather has been good. Further high counts are expected during drier and sunnier interludes. We would therefore recommend that hay fever sufferers do all they can to equip themselves to manage their symptoms.”