Spring Pollen Forecast: Sniffly and Sneezy?

April 3, 2009 -- When Niki Alpers, 24, of Boston, opened the door of the bakery where she works to bring in a shipment of treats last week, she noticed that all-too-familiar tingling sensation in her nose.

Then, the tingling turned into uncontrollable sneezing, itchy eyes and an unstoppable runny nose, she said.

"I had to take a break and go downstairs, get away from where I was," she said. "That pretty much signaled the beginning of spring allergies for me."

Alpers, who is allergic to pollen from trees, grass and ragweed, said she usually experiences one extreme reaction at the start of the season, then has to manage continuous sneezing and sniffling for the next few months.

"It's really frustrating," she said. "I really get agitated and annoyed by it."

Alpers is certainly not the only one who's bothered by allergic rhinitis -- the term that describes the symptoms you experience when you breathe in something to which you're allergic. There are more than 12 million annual doctor visits for allergic rhinitis, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The severity of symptoms, for most people, will vary from year to year, but some in the allergy community already forecast this season as a particularly sneezy one.

"I've been seeing many patients lately with complaints of allergies earlier than I expected this year," said Dr. Jordan Josephson, an otolarynologist and sinus specialist at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center in New York. "And [symptoms], for some, have been worse than I expected."

Gerry Kress, senior executive at SDI Health LLC, a private company that runs the Web site pollen.com, predicts a tougher spring compared to the last two years.

But how can we tell whether a spring allergy season will be worse than any other before it happens?

There's no government system that monitors pollen production, so it's left up to private companies, such as SDI Health, to track pollen.

Get Your Questions Answered at the ABCNews.com OnCall+ Allergy Center

Severe weather changes, including flooding in the Midwest and snowstorms at the tail end of the winter season, contribute to worse allergy seasons, according to Kress. Because of the increased rain and snow in the Midwest and Northeast this year, more trees are budding and grass is growing -- meaning more pollen movement in those areas, he said.