Shots taken over North Carolina on Monday captured pollen haze that made the landscape look yellow. The images taken by Jeremy Gilchrist and obtained by the Reuters new agency show an area in the city of Durham. The pictures were captured as the region saw a spike in pollen concentrations. A pollen report operated by North Carolina's Division of Air Quality described the pollen "severity" in nearby Raleigh for Sunday into Monday as "very high." An aerial view shows pollen haze tinting the environment yellow over an area in Durham, North Carolina, U.S., April 8, 2019, in this picture obtained from social media. Jeremy Gilchrist/via REUTERS An aerial view shows rainfall over a pollen-affected area in Durham, North Carolina, U.S., April 8, 2019, in this picture obtained from social media. Jeremy Gilchrist/via REUTERS An aerial view shows storm clouds pushing pollen over an area in Durham, North Carolina, U.S., April 8, 2019, in this picture obtained from social media. Jeremy Gilchrist/via REUTERS Pollen in the state in the early spring mostly comes from trees. Grasses peak in May, and weeds increase in June, CBS Raleigh affiliate WNCN reported. The Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, a not-for-profit organization, says pollen is a common trigger of seasonal allergies. And scientists say climate change is prolonging allergy season -- and the suffering that goes along with it. Deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels are sending more greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Those gases in turn warm the planet and extend allergy season. Some studies have even found that additional carbon dioxide may even cause some plants to produce even more pollen. "In 2000, there were about 8,000 pollen grains per meter cubed. In 2040, it's projected to be around 20,000," Dr. Tara Narula said last year on "CBS This Morning." The News Journal in Wilmington, Delaware, reported last week that local doctors are seeing more people who are suffering from allergies, and that they are suffering for longer periods of time. Local historical data shows that Delaware appears to be getting warmer. Delaware State Climatologist Daniel Leathers said that has meant a longer span between frosts when plants can bloom and grow.<doc-sep>Spring can feel like the end of the world for allergy sufferers, but in North Carolina this week, it looked that way, too. And it has a name to match: “Pollenpocalypse.” Massive clouds of sneeze-inducing pollen overtook North Carolina this week, tinting the skies yellow and covering cars, streets and ponds in a fine powder that left footprints on the carpets of unsuspecting residents and made allergy sufferers want to hibernate in a panic room until summer. Pine tree pollen erupts across the state each spring, but Jeremy Gilchrist, a photographer in Durham, N.C., said he had never before seen the thick yellow-green haze that filled the air on Monday. “It was very weird,” he said.<doc-sep>You might feel like investing in an air purifier once you’ve seen these photos! That’s what we’re doing. Photographer Jeremy Gilchrist captured some incredible snaps of the air above Durham, North Carolina, tinted yellow-green from springtime tree pollen drifting through the air. The images have gone viral, because all that incoming reproductive plant material signals that spring allergies have arrived. It’s hard to believe, but these pictures aren’t filtered or enhanced. There really is just that much pollen hovering over central North Carolina. Check it out: Thunderstorms moved into the area during Gilchrist’s shoot, creating what he called a “pollen haboob.” A haboob is actually a desert wind storm that kicks up huge amounts of dirt and sand. North Carolina is no desert, but these massive clouds of pollen definitely seem pretty haboob-like. Other Durham locals took to social media to document the phenomenon, too. User @sarahovenall’s car got covered in yellow dust in just a few hours: Three hours. This pollen collected on my car in three hours. Durham in pollen season! pic.twitter.com/TduCDkR1sT — Sarah Ovenall (@sarahovenall) April 10, 2019 A Durham curling facility at @trianglecurling tweeted that its pollen-covered sidewalk looked like something from “The Wizard of Oz”: There was a yellow brick road to the club last night. That is pollen. Spring in the Southeast. pic.twitter.com/Nx5rwomjLN — Triangle Curling (Durham, NC) (@trianglecurling) April 9, 2019 Jordan Lassiter at @waterthedesert posted a crazy pic from the Duke Gardens on the Duke University campus, calling the event “the pollen takeover”: Here’s a look at outdoor patio furniture covered in pollen from @rewriteables: According to CNN, North Carolina’s Department of Environmental Quality reported that the official pollen count in Raleigh was 1778.8 grains per cubic meter of air yesterday. That count, which is considered “very high,” is the highest for the city so far this year. Experts attribute the pollen spike over the last week to the area’s plethora of trees, including oak, pine, mulberry and birch. Brian Shrader from WRAL Traffic also confirmed the high pollen levels on Twitter: Yesterday was the 2nd highest daily #pollen count in #Raleigh since 2002. We could see the pollen haze from SKY5 over #Durham yesterday. @WRAL pic.twitter.com/wgVvi8xT0N — Brian Shrader (@wraltraffic) April 11, 2019 Luckily, Monday’s thunderstorm cleared the air and washed away much of the pollen on the ground. The relief will be short-lived, however, as pollen puffs back into the air when the city dries out. Durham meteorologist Brittany Bell of ABC 11 WTVD-TV explains in the video below. [arve url=”https://abc11.com/video/embed/?pid=5240813″ /] Meanwhile, in Denver, where I live, a blizzard was bearing down on Wednesday. Hundreds of flights were canceled even before the snow fell, with some airlines offering incentives for passengers to change their flights to a less snowy date. Getty Images | John Moore I tried to hit my local Trader Joe’s around 10:30 a.m. Wednesday and found the parking lot empty — they’d closed for the day due to the coming storm. Shortly after, the school district canceled all after-school activities. I’m just hoping we have some pollen left for our trees and plants after this blast of snow. Hilariously, it hit 79 degrees on Tuesday. It was glorious. Ah, spring. It’s crazy, right? What’s the weather like where you are?<doc-sep>DURHAM, North Carolina (WPVI) -- Pollen was in the air on Monday ... and on cars, the ground, handrails and practically everything else outside. WTVD-TV reports , it was an allergy sufferer's worst nightmare -- the sneezing, the congestion, the itching/watery eyes.Before thunderstorms rolled in on Monday in Durham, North Carolina, photographer Jeremy Gilchrist was able to capture the severity of the apparent "doomsday" situation that was hovering above.He posted several photos to Facebook saying, "No tricks here. Yes you are looking at a green haze made up of tree pollen from the pines of central NC! This is Durham:"The sight of it is enough to make any allergy sufferer cringe.<doc-sep>
Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the first name of photographer Jeremy Gilchrist. (CNN) — #ThePollening. It sounds like an M. Night Shyamalan horror film. If you suffer from pollen allergies, just looking at the above photo may make you want to choke. It was taken Monday by photographer Jeremy Gilchrist, who used a drone to snap aerial pictures of the yellowish green haze blanketing Durham, North Carolina. The pollen wasn’t just coating cars and patio chairs – it was hanging thick in the air. He called it #pollenpocalypse. Gilchrist told CNN he was driving around when he noticed a green cloud in the air. “It was surprising to see it up that high,” he said. He’s seen pollen shrouds like this before in North Carolina, but from the ground it’s difficult to capture their sheer magnitude. So he sent up his drone to a get a better vantage point. The photos look almost like they’ve been filtered on Instagram. But Gilchrist says he only lightly edited them before posting them to social media. Seen from the drone’s perspective they looked “pretty dull,” he said, so he added contrast to bump the photos back to the levels usually apparent to the naked eye and resembling how the pollen cloud looked from the ground. Gilchrist, who has also worked as a meteorologist and storm chaser, said pollen can collect in high concentrations in the air like this depending on the amount of recent rain. Yesterday, which was “breezy and dry,” helped create the ideal conditions for pollen granules to congregate. He said thunderstorms hit two hours after the original photos were taken. The strong winds swept away the pollen in the air, and the downpour washed away much of the pollen that had settled on the ground. After Gilchrist took the photos, a thunderstorm set in, blowing the pollen cloud away. The official pollen count in Raleigh, North Carolina, about 20 miles away, was 1778.8 grains per cubic meter of air yesterday, according to North Carolina’s Department of Environmental Quality. It’s the highest pollen count in the area so far this year That count is considered “very high” and tops the charts for the city so far this year. The pollen spike over the last week comes primarily from the area’s trees, which include pine, oak, mulberry, birch and sweet gum. In the latest Weather Channel numbers Tuesday, Raleigh ranks fifth in the nation in pollen severity. Tulsa, Oklahoma, tops that list, followed by Waco, Texas; Springfield, New Jersey; and Georgetown, Texas. The Weather Channel classified the breathing-comfort level in Raleigh Tuesday as “fair” but said it would go down to “poor” on Wednesday. The haze this week isn’t the worst ever recorded by scientists in Raleigh. In 2010, they recorded a count of 3,524 grains per cubic meter, nearly double the count this week, CNN affiliate WRAL reported. But the Raleigh-Durham area isn’t typically known for being especially nightmarish for allergy sufferers. In its 2018 “Allergy Capitals” report, the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America ranked Durham 67th and Raleigh 92nd nationwide in allergy severity.