Holy friggen pollen, Batman!

These are the pollen counts in Atlanta for the month of March, 2012:

"Extremely high" on this scale is considered anything over 500 (grains of pollen in a cubic meter of air.)

See last Monday and Tuesday? The 19th set an all-time record for Atlanta, which was promptly broken the next day. That was just about the death of me. (Okay, okay, I made the STUPID decision to ride my bike to the dentist on Tuesday. Stupid stupid stupid.)

I'm still "sick" from it (though I think I might have also caught a small cold on top of the pollen.) Dry, unproductive cough interspersed with excessive, gross greenish yellow mucous production.

I need to go scout out a route for a bike ride I'm helping organize. I hate to say it, but I think I'll drive.

For reference, here are the March 2011 pollen counts for ATL:

Highest we got last year? March 24, at 3939.

2010 saw a high of merely 462. 

 

How about 2009? March 30, at 1727.

2008, you ask? March 19, at 534.

You have to go all the way back to 2007 to find a year even remotely as bad as this year. March 26, 2007: 5499 (which was, I believe, the previous all-time record, before it was shattered last week.) 

Why? In significant part, an unusually warm and early spring. And yes, pollen counts and season length are definitely linked to global climate change chaos.