Spring in Washington means cherry blossoms, azaleas and a
collective wet sneeze from the hundreds of thousands of allergy
sufferers in the region. This year, a long snow-covered winter
may actually have protected plants while an early burst of
summer-like temperatures called forth the blossoms, creating
what felt to many like a pollen bomb. Plants that would usually
have bloomed in an orderly sequence — forsythia, daffodils,
tulips, cherry blossoms, dogwood, azaleas and lilacs — are all
flowering together. Cars, streets, pets and other plants are
covered with a gritty yellow-green sneeze-inducing residue.
Allergy symptoms are the common result, and they cost a bundle.
It doesn’t help that Washington is part of a U.S. trend spurred
by climate change, with the signs of spring coming about 10 days
earlier than they did two decades ago. That means some missed
connections in the natural world, as some plants and animals
adapt better than others to the early onset of spring. There’s
another kind of early heat settl