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Pollen & Mold

A real, measured count — not a model. The Houston Health Department laboratory (a certified National Allergy Bureau counting station) samples the air continuously and publishes the count every weekday morning. It's a regional reading: pollen travels, so the Houston count is the right guidance for Crosby air.

Count for Thursday, Jul 16 · new counts publish weekday mornings.

Tree pollen

None

0 grains/m³

Weed pollen

Low

6 grains/m³

Grass pollen

Medium

6 grains/m³

Mold spores

Heavy

13,823 spores/m³

What's in the air

Only types the lab actually counted today are listed (names as the lab reports them).

Weed pollen

  • Other weed pollen4
  • Plantago (Plantain)2

Mold spores

  • Ascospores9,063
  • Basidiospores3,165
  • Cladosporium1,245
  • Penicillium/Aspergillus226
  • Smuts/Myxomycetes68
  • Cercospora28
  • Curvularia18
  • Dreshslera/Helminthosporium4

How to read the categories

Categories follow the National Allergy Bureau scale — None, Low, Medium, Heavy, Extremely Heavy — and the thresholds differ by type, because it takes far fewer grass grains than mold spores to bother people:

LowMediumHeavyExtremely Heavy
Grass pollen1–45–1920–199200+
Weed pollen1–910–4950–499500+
Tree pollen1–1415–8990–1,4991,500+
Mold spores1–6,4996,500–12,99913,000–49,99950,000+

The allergy year around Crosby

Tree pollen dominates mid-January through mid-April (oak, elm, pine — and cedar elm makes a second run in September–October). Grass pollen runs long here, spring through fall. Ragweed and other weeds peak in the fall. Mold spores are the year-round constant on the humid Gulf Coast — counts jump after rain and in the muggy summer, which is why a Heavy mold day in July is common.

On high days: mornings are usually worst for pollen, rain knocks pollen down (but pushes mold up a day or two later), and windy dry days spread everything. If you're sensitive, check the count before yard work and keep windows closed on Heavy days.