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​Delayed Start To Spring Brings Hay Fever Outbreak To Britain

​Delayed Start To Spring Brings Hay Fever Outbreak To Britain

With all the blooming flowers, bouncing lambs and rising temperatures, there's also a nasty downside to spring this year

Jess Hardiman

Jess Hardiman

We've been waiting for spring for what's felt like years, but after weeks of snow, heavy rain, heavy hail, gale-forced winds and freezing cold temperatures, it finally feels the season we're supposed to be enjoying has actually sprung.

However, with all the blooming flowers, bouncing lambs and rising temperatures, there's also a nasty downside - and that's hay fever, the bane of many people's lives that leaves eyes and noses absolutely streaming. FFS.

via GIPHY

According to the Sun, the reason why Britain will be hit with an outburst of hay fever is because there's been such a delayed start to spring.

Tree varieties like birch, alder, horse chestnut and hazel apparently normally start blooming gradually, starting in early March, but the inclement weather courtesy of the Beast from the East and Storm Emma has meant that this process didn't begin when it was supposed to.

Allergy expert Max Wiseberg told the Sun: "When the tree pollen season is delayed, more trees are likely to release their pollen at the same time, creating a time bomb waiting to explode.

"Peaks of tree pollen could be higher than normal. The recent cold wintry weather provided the optimum conditions for this to happen."

It's not all bad news, though, as this week we were told that some parts of the UK will be hotter than Portugal.

Forecasters are predicting temperatures well above the average for this time of year in the UK - and while the Algarve will hit around 16C this weekend, London is set to reach 17C, which sounds positively tropical right now.

Katie Greening from the Weather Channel told the Mirror: "Temperatures will be about 5C to 7C above the seasonal average in a southeasterly airflow.

"Rain and cloud will dampen temperature anomalies over the British Isles, western France and northern Iberia but it will still be 3C to 5C above the seasonal norm."

Don't get too used to it, mind you, as the Met Office's longer forecast predicts that the higher temperatures aren't here to stay.

A spokesperson said: "Whilst there is low confidence in the forecast through the period (April 7 to 16), the most likely scenario is for largely dry and warm conditions in the south-east and showers or longer spells of rain in the north and west through the weekend.

"There may be a tendency for this scenario to reverse early into next week with a bias for more settled conditions further north.

"It is likely that there will be marked variations in temperature across the UK, ranging from rather warm in central and south-eastern areas to rather cold in the north with night frosts more likely.

"Next week the confidence becomes very low but a mild changeable pattern with showers or longer spells of rain seems most likely.

"After this a more blocked, settled regime may become more prevalent."

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: Weather, UK News, UK