HOUSTON – Have your allergies been bad lately? If you’re noticing changes and are wondering about the situation in our area, there are plenty of places that share information about pollen, mold and air quality in the Houston area.
You can always get the readings here from KPRC 2.
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The Houston Health Department has pollen and mold counts posted on its website here. Here’s an explanation of what the numbers actually mean.
Greater Houston area residents can track ozone levels through the Houston Clean Air Network. You can also sign up to receive the Texas Air Quality Forecast and Ozone Action Day e-mail alerts here from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
Just so you know, the Today’s Texas Air Quality Forecast is based on the EPA’s Air Quality Index scale for ozone and made for 14 forecast regions across the state (Austin, Beaumont-Port Arthur, Brownsville-McAllen, Corpus Christi, Dallas-Fort Worth, El Paso, Houston, Laredo, Lubbock, Midland-Odessa, San Antonio, Tyler-Longview, Victoria, and Waco-Killeen). It is updated daily on normal TCEQ work days and may also be updated on weekends or holidays when air pollution levels are high, according to TCEQ’s website.
The forecast is posted on the Today’s Texas Air Quality Forecast webpage and disseminated via e-mail whenever updates are made. Each day during ozone season (roughly March through November in Texas), Ozone Action Day forecasts are made for nine participating metropolitan areas (Austin, Beaumont-Port Arthur, Corpus Christi, Dallas-Fort Worth, El Paso, Houston, San Antonio, Tyler-Longview, and Victoria). The TCEQ said it informs the public typically a day in advance when conditions are forecast to be favorable for high ozone levels in any of the participating areas so citizens, businesses, and industry can take steps to reduce the pollutants that contribute to ozone formation.
If you’re looking for national resources, the American Academy of Allergy Asthma and Immunology has this resource to check pollen and mold levels and view an allergen report for each station area show on its map. You can sign up for email alerts when levels change at the station. You can customize your emails to show when a new count is available, when counts are low, moderate or high or very high.
You can also get air quality readings from the Environmental Protection Agency for air quality on airnow.gov. Just enter your city, zip code or state here.