# Pollen counts question.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pollen-counts-question/195592>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [August 16, 2003, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pollen-counts-question/195592 "2003-08-16T15:20:46Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![beagledave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6de8d8/32.png) [@beagledave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beagledave)\
**Post date:** [August 16, 2003, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pollen-counts-question/195592/1 "2003-08-16T15:20:46Z")

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I have seasonal rhinitis, especially bad at the height of ragweed season. This time of the year I’m usually checking [Pollen.com](http://www.pollen.com) for a pollen forecast.

My question is…how do they do a **forecast**?

My understanding of traditional pollen counts is that they have plates or petri dishes or some such thing on top of a building. Someone then counts the number of pollen spores each day. A posted pollen count often tells you what the pollen count was the previous day.

There is a vague description of their proces at [this](http://http://pollen.com/aboutus.asp) part of the website…anyone have any idea how they do 4 day forecasts, and whether these forecasts are very accurate?

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**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\
**Post date:** [August 17, 2003, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pollen-counts-question/195592/2 "2003-08-17T02:53:09Z")

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Beagledave languishing on page 2. Awwww…  
Linkie no workie. Fixie.

> **[National Allergy Forecast & Info About Allergies](https://www.pollen.com/)**
>
> Check out national allergy map, get your local allergy outlook, track you allergies with Allergy Diary, and more features at Pollen.com

Sez, "[Pollen.com](http://Pollen.com)’s proprietary forecasts have been developed by Multidata LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of SDI that specializes in aerobiology and environmental modeling. "

“Aerobiology”. Now that’s a new one.

Putter, putter, putter…

Ahh.  
[http://www.aerobiology.ca/allergen-update/info.html](http://www.aerobiology.ca/allergen-update/info.html)

> [@](#):
>
> About Allergen Forecasting
> 
> The pollen forecast is designed with the primary considerations of allergenicity and the allergy sufferer. The system is designed around a combination of the plants present in any given area and their probable affects in terms of the degree of discomfort they cause to persons with allergies… [more, with many big words]

🙂