Hay Fever Worse Every Year? Compare Your Seasons Honestly

Whether your hay fever gets worse from year to year shows best in numbers, not in the feeling that "this year was worse". UK sources say pollen seasons may start earlier and last longer, but they say nothing about yours. A practice asks when, how long and how often. Numbers from a diary make your answers exact. You keep it on paper or in the symptom diary of Sam, and once a doctor has confirmed hay fever, the hay fever diary gives you a doctor report as a PDF. This text shows how you compare two seasons honestly.

What the sources say about longer seasons

The UK Health Security Agency says a changing climate means changes in temperature and rainfall may lengthen the UK pollen season and potentially make pollen concentrations higher. Its blog notes that some pollen could be released earlier and last longer as temperatures rise. The centre of your allergy season in the UK is usually between late March and September, when the pollen count is highest, says the NHS.

In the US, the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI) describes seasonal allergic rhinitis in the spring, summer and early fall, driven by tree, grass and weed pollen.

A 2021 study in PNAS (Anderegg et al.) combined pollen records from 60 North American stations for 1990 to 2018 with climate models. It found widespread earlier starts and lengthening of pollen seasons (about 20 days) and higher pollen concentrations (about 21 percent) across North America, tied to observed warming.

This explains why seasons can change. It does not say that your season has got worse. How strong and how long a plant flowers depends on location and weather, and many factors decide how you react in one particular year. A single bad year is not a trend.

Can the season really start in winter?

The sources do not agree on one calendar, so each one is worth reading on its own.

• UK Health Security Agency: some pollen levels high enough to trigger hay fever could occur as early as January or February in the UK as temperatures rise.
• Allergy UK: tree pollen in the spring, grass pollen in the summer and weed pollen in the autumn may cause symptoms. It gives no exact dates on this page.
• NHS: symptoms are usually worse between late March and September, especially when it is warm, humid and windy.

Symptoms in winter can fit that picture, but they are not proof of pollen. In winter a viral cold is possible too. The line between the two is covered in cold or allergies: differences in symptoms and duration. Complaints all year round, the sources note, more often point to indoor triggers such as house dust mites. Write down when your symptoms start and when you are free, rather than trusting a memory of the season.

How you tell whether yours is getting worse

For a fair comparison, one season against the next, feelings alone are not enough. A practice asks about onset, duration and timing. These are the things you can count per season:

• Days with symptoms.
• Bad days among them, by your own judgement.
• Weeks with symptoms on more than four days, and how many of those come in a row.
• Nights with disturbed sleep, and days when daily life suffered.
• Your first and last symptom day.
• What you took, such as tablets, nasal spray or eye drops, and on how many days.

Most of these numbers already sit in the doctor report from Sam: symptom days, bad days, weeks with symptoms on more than four days, nights with disturbed sleep, and days with a restricted daily life. Sam counts what you enter.

Count the good days too. Without them you lose the context. Twenty symptom days in thirty is not the same as twenty in ninety. The Sleep Foundation notes that people with allergic rhinitis are more likely to have daytime fatigue and trouble waking up. If that sounds like you, write it down.

An invented example, each time March to June: last year 38 symptom days, 5 bad ones and 2 weeks with symptoms on more than four days. This year 61, 15 and 7. A practice can work with that contrast. Why the numbers look as they do, it will discuss with you.

Compare two seasons: how to do it

Notes from a season help your doctor plan specific checks. For a comparison of two seasons, go this way:

1. Take the same months. March to June against March to June, not a whole year against half a season.
2. Count the same things in both seasons.
3. Separate days elsewhere. Two weeks on holiday can shift your numbers, because pollen depends on location.
4. Note what changed: a move, a new commute, a new medication with its date. A practice asks about place, activity and medicines.

If you wrote nothing down last season, there is no number comparison. Describe the previous year in words and keep this one faithfully. The numeric comparison comes next year.

Start at your first sneeze, not in March. If the season can begin in winter, then winter belongs in your numbers.

When a medical check makes sense

A medical check makes sense when symptoms are new or getting worse. If your season is worse, that is reason enough for an appointment; you do not have to wait and count another year first. The numbers help in the conversation, but they are not a requirement.

Which medicine you take, and whether it still fits you, is for the practice to decide. This text gives no treatment advice.

The NHS says to see a GP if your symptoms are getting worse or do not improve after medicines from the pharmacy, or if you also have asthma and it is getting worse. If you also cough, wheeze or feel short of breath, say so when you book. For acute breathlessness, call your local emergency number (112 in the EU, 999 in the UK, 911 in the US). How to separate hay fever from airway complaints is covered in does hay fever turn into asthma.

What to bring to the appointment

• Your numbers for both seasons, on one page or as two prints, for example two doctor reports from Sam.
• The first and last symptom day of each season.
• A list of what you take and since when, including what you only take when needed.
• Copies of earlier allergy tests, if you have them.
• Your question in one sentence, for example: is this getting worse, or was it just an unusual year?

If your hay fever started later in life, the guide sudden hay fever at 40, 50 or 60 helps. What immunotherapy costs and how coverage works is in allergen immunotherapy cost and coverage.

Log symptom days in Sam and compare two seasons as a PDF

You bring two seasons as numbers into the room, instead of describing them from memory.

• Instead of paper slips or a notes app: with one tap you mark the day as good, mild or bad, and add nose, eyes, sleep and daily life if you want.
• Instead of looking up pollen: when you share your approximate location, Sam attaches the day's pollen index and air quality, and sleep comes from Apple Health.
• Instead of counting in your head: the doctor report names symptom days, bad days and symptom-free days, and saving a PDF at the end of the season puts two seasons side by side.

The hay fever program is for people whose doctor has confirmed hay fever. You draw the comparison yourself.

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Sam is a wellness companion, not a medical device. The app does not diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any condition or health state. Always consult qualified professionals for medical decisions.

Related reading

• Hay Fever Symptoms: Signs, Season and Diary
• Living with Allergic Rhinitis Through Pollen Season
• Blocked Nose at Night: Poor Sleep with Hay Fever
• Does Hay Fever Turn Into Asthma?

Sources

Updated: October 2026

• UK Health Security Agency: Is hay fever season starting earlier in the UK, with the pollen count rising? (blog, 23 February 2024)
• NHS: Hay fever (page last reviewed 21 March 2024)
• Allergy UK: Hay fever and allergic rhinitis
• American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI): Hay fever (reviewed 17 June 2020)
• Sleep Foundation: Allergies and sleep (updated 12 May 2026)
• Anderegg WRL et al.: Anthropogenic climate change is worsening North American pollen seasons. PNAS 2021;118(7):e2013284118