LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Monday marks one week from the beginning of spring which means people who suffer from allergies are on high alert.
This allergy season is expected to be more intense this year as temperatures are warming up later than usual.
At the UNLV Life Sciences building, there are devices that are collecting samples of our air 24/7 and those samples tell crews what pollens are present so that we know what we are breathing.
"We set it to go on Friday and it collects throughout the weekend," research association Eric Matesen said. "It just happens to be the perfect height that the National Allergy Bureau wants us to have our sampler."
Matesen said they utilize six samplers across the valley including one in Jean.
After samples are collected, they're taken back to a lab on campus. They are then inspected through a microscope and people like pollen program supervisor Asma Tahir start counting.
"Imagine if you are counting 16,000 mulberries a day, I'm doing this [hitting a button] 16,000 times a day," Tahir said.
Tahir takes that data and sends it to the National Allergy Bureau and that's how Channel 13 gets pollen data to share with you and numbers could be close to going up.
"We are expecting mulberry will hit pretty soon," Tahir said. "It didn't come for the past two weeks, which is a little unusual because of the cold."
Tahir said ash pollen was delayed due to the cold weather and that's also delaying mulberry from being spotted in the samples. However, that could change since temperatures are warming up. She adds these air samples let people know what is in the air and when to possibly start taking allergy medication.
The pollen monitoring program is funded by the Clark County School District. CCSD receives money from fines collected by Clark County's Division of Air Quality. The school district uses those funds for the field of science giving money for equipment like the pollen collecting program.
There are currently monitoring sites at Palo Verde High School, Jerome Mack Middle School, and Sunrise Acres and Joe Neal Elementary Schools.
