Runny nose, itchy eyes and overall miserable? Blame this, Texas allergists say

Mountain cedar pollen is running amok in parts of Texas, causing allergy suffers to rub their eyes, sneeze and pretty much feel awful.

Clouds of pollen explode from ashe juniper trees in South-Central Texas, and depending on which way the wind is blowing, spread across the state.

A video filmed by Markus Hogue that has been shared more than 10,000 times shows trees unleashing mountain cedar in Austin.

Austin and San Antonio are usually the cities hit the hardest, but Dallas-Fort Worth allergy sufferers succumb to the winter villain as well.

“The pollen count hit 28,160 on Monday, the highest so far this season, and it is expected to remain high through Thursday,” News 4 San Antonio reported.

A quick look at pollen.com shows that the five worst cities for allergy sufferers in the United States on Monday are in Texas, including San Antonio and Austin. It’ll probably be more of the same the rest of this week.

“The peak of the cedar season is usually the first two weeks of January,” Fox 7 Austin reported.

The mountain cedar outbreaks usually follow a cold front, experts say.

“Basically, those cold fronts act like a wall of wind when they’re dry,” KXAN Meteorologist Kristen Currie said. “Once it hits the Austin metro, and once it hits that tree, it just kicks everything off of it, all of those pollen grains, and it just gets lofted into the air.”

Because of the potency and volume in which the pollen falls, allergy sufferers will be affected.

“What sets Austin apart from anywhere else in the U.S. is our winter cedar pollen season,” the Allergy and Asthma Center of Austin said. “When most of the country is frozen with no blooming plants, the cedar trees go crazy in Austin. The highest pollen counts ever recorded anywhere in the world occur annually when these trees cut loose.”

There are ways to fight mountain cedar, including over-the-counter antihistamines and decongestants. Sufferers are also advised to take showers after coming in from outside and to place their clothes in a washing machine or dirty clothes hamper to prevent the pollen from spreading.

But the best preventative measure is to stay indoors, with doors and windows closed.