Pollen, temps both up

Published 8:36 pm Tuesday, April 6, 2010

If it seems as though Mother Nature skipped spring and threw Suffolk right into the heat of summer, your thermometer isn’t playing tricks on you.

Area temperatures on Tuesday nearly broke record highs.

The high temperature on Tuesday was 91 degrees — just one degree shy of the 1929 record of 92 degrees.

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“It’s definitely warming up fast,” said Bill Sammler, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s Wakefield station. “The normal high this time of year is in the 60s.”

The reason for the heat is what Sammler called a “ridge of high pressure,” which brings in warm air from the south and southwest. When experienced during the summer, they often lead to record-breaking temperatures.

“We’ve had that kind of pattern prevailing here over the last few days,” Sammler said. “It’s typically a summer pattern, but here it’s April and for the past few days that’s what it’s been.”

While the weather may come as a welcome treat for those ready to begin their summer early after a wet and frozen winter, it did bring in an onslaught of pollen — never good news to those with allergies.

While pollen allergies are unavoidable this time of year, “there’s a lot of additional pollen in the air right now,” Sammler said. “Because it warmed up so fast, instead of gradually, all trees and plants are coming out at one time.”

For those looking for relief from the heat, though, the good news is it won’t last long.

Beginning Thursday night and early Friday morning, temperatures will drop into the normal range, and clouds will set in with the possibility of showers.

“Wednesday will be just as hot, but we’ll get a cold front Thursday night and early into Friday,” Sammler said. “It will be noticeably cooler on Friday and through the weekend, with temperatures getting closer to normal.”