How You Can Track Pollen Counts in The Spring

If you're an allergy sufferer like me, Spring is one of the worst times of the years. Itchy eyes, running nose, and non-stop coughing are enough to drive you crazy, making it tempting sit inside your house until the first winter freeze. Unfortunately, because of our long winter, this year promises to be the worst allergy season in a long time. When allergy season hits, you shouldn't leave your house before you do two things. First, check the daily pollen counts and second, medicate yourself to minimize your misery. There are many apps out there to help you check the allergy forecast and pollen counts, but these are the best.

1. WeatherBug. For years, I absolutely hated this app. It was annoying and it had all of the symptoms of malware. I'm happy to report that Weatherbug has cleaned up it's act and has created a very useful app. It's an excellent source for hourly, daily and weekly allergy reports which let you know which allergy triggers are high.

2. WebMD Allergy. The app for hypochondriacs everywhere is actually a great app you can use to give you a breakdown of the allergies that are in the air. You can look at it's easy to use map to show you allergy severity by county across the country, which is great if you're planning on travelling. Of course you can take advantage of WebMD's extensive medical database to read information about specific allergies. Becareful though, if you don't search properly, you could wind up with a diagnosis of Ebola.

3. Zyrtec AllergyCast. I have to admit Zyrtec doesn't really help relieve my allergy symptoms, but it makes sense that the makers of the of most popular allergy medicine have an app that allows allow you to keep up with the pollen count. Yes, using the app screams 'Use Zyrtec' every-time you open the app, but it is a great app that uses colors to represent how severe the pollen count is for the day. One of the best features of this app is you can track your allergy symptoms, which is handy if your doctor wants you to keep a record.

4. Accuweather. This app gives you a quick summary of what the pollen count looks like for the current day or the following week for an part of the country. If you are always using the app on your smart device or computer, it makes sense to take advantage of the pollen count feature, rather than downloading an extra app on your device.

5. The Weather Channel. Everyone is familiar with the Weather Channel and it's, but did you know it has a allergy forecast built in the app? The pollen count feature is sponsored by Flonase which means you don't have to put up with a ton of ads like you do in the regular Weather Channel app. The app divides the allergy forecast in to sections for grass, pollen, grass, ragweed and air quality for asthma suffers. You can look at the current day up to a week in advance.

What do you use to track pollen counts? How have your allergies been this season? Drop me a line and leave a comment in the section below.